Latest news with #BryonyGordon
Daily Mail
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Doctors thought I had a brain aneurysm - Ashley Roberts reveals how stress of life in the Pussycat Dolls caused her 'body to shut down'
Pussycat Dolls singer Ashley Roberts revealed the devastating physical toll the music industry had on her in the latest episode of the Mail's The Life of Bryony podcast. Ashley, 43, told Mail columnist Bryony Gordon how being forced to give up dancing - and discovering breathwork - pulled her back from the brink of a mental breakdown. The performer was only 22 years old when she joined the group in 2003, eventually moving to London from Los Angeles after their split in 2010. Ashley's new book, Breathwork, transforms the hard-won lessons from her difficult past into practical techniques for improving mental and physical health. 'My body was literally shutting down', Ashley told the podcast. 'The Dolls were in London doing a show. I was sat in my hotel room and all of a sudden I had this extreme headache. 'The pain was unreal. I also felt really sick. We were supposed to do a show in Germany the next day, so I called my manager - who told me to go to the hospital. 'The doctors thought I'd had a brain aneurysm. When I went to have an MRI, my knee locked up and that was viral arthritis entering my body. 'My mentality at the time was all about making it to the next show – but that was the moment I remember thinking: what's going on here? I need to take a second because this isn't cool.' Ashley revealed how the cutthroat music industry had instilled a toxic work ethic that was destroying her health. 'The early 2000s was a whole different era honey', the performer told Bryony. 'No one ever spoke about mental health or the importance of checking in. I am grateful there has been a shift – people cancelling shows now when they need to look after themselves. 'I felt I was weak. It was instilled in us from a young age that we were interchangeable. There was a pressure of like, if you don't show up, who knows what might happen. 'I grew up in the dance world and there is still an attitude of – if you break your toe, you need to keep going. Your mind is programmed to think: the show must go on. 'In the end, I had to take some time off. It was a viral infection with extreme side effects – what was probably a manifestation of being so rundown.' Following the Pussycat Dolls' split in 2010, Ashley began building her career in the UK, finishing runner-up on I'm A Me Out of Here! in 2012. After making the move to London permanent, the Heart radio presenter told Bryony how feeling 'spiritually lost' in her new home led her to discover breathwork - her second great love after music. Breathwork is a practice that uses controlled breathing techniques to reduce stress, improve mental clarity, and promote physical and emotional healing. 'After the Dolls, I stopped dancing completely', Ashley said. 'Being in a pop group for so long, I just shut all that down and wanted to go in a different direction. 'I decided to go to Bali – I went because I knew this life coach who was putting on a retreat out there. I went on my own for 12 days, no cell phones, no technology, I completely disconnected. 'I remember doing my first breathwork class and oh my God, it felt so good. It created this sense of calm that I can't explain. 'I always felt this chaos internally and suddenly, for a few moments, it felt like I wasn't battling it anymore. 'I didn't quite realise how then how great a tool it would be in helping me process life. 'When my dad died, that ability to reflect gave me the motivation to stay strong – and I want to share that.' To listen to the full candid interview with the former Pussycat Doll, search for The Life of Bryony now, wherever you get your podcasts.
Daily Mail
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE I have seen politicians, royalty and movie stars naked - this is why you need to stop hating your body
Spray tanner to the stars Jules Von Hep revealed how the beauty industry 'conditions you to hate the way you look' on the latest episode of the Mail's The Life of Bryony podcast. Von Hep co-founded the celebrated tanning brand Isle of Paradise and has over twenty years of experience spray tanning 'every type of person', from bridesmaids to politicians and movie stars. After recently leaving the company he helped create, Von Hep now dedicates his time to spreading a body positive message to his over 109,000 Instagram followers. Having struggled with body image issues throughout his career, the beauty industry insider has channelled the lessons from his personal life and career into a new self-help book, The Confidence Ritual, which is available now. 'Everybody, whether they're famous or not, has some kind of hangup when it comes to their body', Von Hep told Mail columnist Bryony Gordon. 'This was a massive learning experience for me, and I realised that everyone is conditioned to hate the way they look. 'Everyone I worked with – when they enter the spray tan tent and take their clothes off – the first reaction is always an apology. 'We are told to hate the way we look in order to sell products so brands can make money. They need to make us believe we have a problem which doesn't really exist.' Von Hep has made it his mission to counter these sinister sales tactics by helping people love their bodies as they are. He explained: 'I am not teaching anyone something new, I am teaching you how to unlearn the beauty industry's programming. 'We're not born hating our bodies – it's a learned behaviour through our teenage years and into our early twenties. That's when we first think there's something wrong with us. 'Whatever you think you have on your body – I'll tell you now, as someone who has stared at naked bodies for literally twenty years, someone else has it. 'Don't stress about it because your body is carrying you through this life. It's giving you every experience, every joy and every moment to be present. Listen to The Life of Bryony podcast Ever feel like everyone else has it together while you're barely hanging on? Join Bryony Gordon for honest, unfiltered conversations about life's messier moments – from anxiety and heartbreak to addiction and loss. Listen wherever you get your podcasts now. 'You've got to be grateful. Don't waste time hating it.' To prove his point, Von Hep recounted an experience from a fashion shoot that exposed the industry's distortion of body image. 'I remember tanning a very famous model for a fashion shoot', Von Hep said. 'She was naked, lying on the side of a pool. I was on the set with my little kit bag running on and off, moisturising her thighs and shoulders. 'I remember looking up at the monitor - she looked great in the pictures. Anyway, six months later, that image was on the side of busses and used in TV campaigns. It was everywhere. 'When I saw it, I thought to myself: f*** me, her ass didn't look like that on set. All her cellulite was gone; all her wrinkles had been removed. 'I was with my friends at the time, and I remember thinking, they don't know she has been retouched. They actually think she looks like that – and I know she doesn't. 'It was a light bulb moment. People need to know that every image they look at has been retouched. It could be a flyaway hair; it could be a wrinkle. 'I know celebrities who have it in their contract to remove one wrinkle from one hooded eye every time an image of them goes out. 'People are beautiful exactly the way they are – it's all so pernicious.' Listen to Jules Von Hep's full interview, including his personal battle with body dysmorphia, on The Life of Bryony - available now wherever you get your podcasts.
Daily Mail
23-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Women are being brainwashed - author and anorexia survivor Megan Jayne Crabbe challenges diet culture and beauty standards in candid Mail podcast
Society's toxic obsession with women's appearances must be 'dismantled' to protect young people's mental health, author Megan Jayne Crabbe told the latest Life of Bryony podcast. Megan, 31, is a social media star known online as Bodyposipanda, an anorexia survivor and anti-diet enthusiast who advocates for fat acceptance and body positivity. She's the author of the bestselling book Body Positive Power, which has taught thousands of people how to stop dieting and make peace with their bodies. Speaking to Mail columnist Bryony Gordon, Megan criticised the relentless pressure on women to lose weight, constantly shave and wear makeup to satisfy the male gaze. 'Everything I watched when I was young presented this one incredibly narrow vision of beauty', the author said. 'You had to be thin, white, able-bodied, cisgender, young and straight – that was the beauty standard. 'For the majority of my young life, I believed reaching that standard wasn't even an option. 'I am mixed race, I was chubby as a child, I was never going to turn into Rachel Green from Friends – but in my head, it felt like the only option.' Born in the 'fatphobic' mid-nineties, Megan revealed she began experiencing body hatred as early as age five. During her teens, these feelings escalated into an eating disorder so severe she needed treatment in a psychiatric hospital. 'My body image issues started from the first day of primary school', Megan told the podcast. 'I thought there was something wrong with me because I looked different. I latched onto dieting as a way of solving the problem. 'By age ten, I was consistently trying to lose weight. That spiralled over the next few years and developed into anorexia nervosa. 'I am very lucky to be sat here right now. I was hospitalised and had to spend time in a psychiatric institution for young people. 'Recovery was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. When your weight has been restored – people tell you you're fine. 'But then you go back into a world where disordered eating is everywhere and so normalised. Everyone's tracking calories, body shaming themselves and obsessed with how much they weigh in the morning. 'It's a complete minefield – trying to recover within such a diet-obsessed society.' Megan's new book, We Don't Make Ourselves Smaller Here, expands beyond body positivity to explore female sexual empowerment and beauty standards. The issue of shaving features prominently throughout the collection of essays, with the influencer asking her audience to examine where women's urge to remove body hair actually comes from. 'Like all women and girls, I was taught that body hair was disgusting', Megan began. 'I believed it was unhygienic, unfeminine and that you must shave it. There was a point during lockdown where I hadn't been as diligent with shaving, and I realised that I didn't want to do it anymore. 'I asked myself: who am I doing this for? The reason why women feel the way they do about body hair is very similar to the reason they feel the way they do about thinness. 'There are huge amounts of money, massive industries that have successfully brainwashed all of us into thinking that we must be hairless to be beautiful.' Megan explained that building body positivity and confidence begins with small, everyday practices of self-care that help 'rewire your brain'. She also encouraged women to reject the various manifestations of diet culture, from the recent Ozempic craze to wellness fads. The author advised: 'Start with something simple – sit in your bedroom and look at yourself naked. Challenge yourself not to zoom in on all the things we have been conditioned to see as flaws. 'Do not make a mental list: notice when that negative self-talk pops up and try to redirect it. 'This takes practice – I did not flip a switch one day and become the most confident person on the internet. I started by challenging myself to wear shorts at home and not be disgusted with myself. 'You have to decide once and for all that your body is not a trend. It doesn't matter what is in or what is being sold, we all deserve to just exist in whatever variation and diversity we exist in.'
Daily Mail
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE I hated being a mother - author Sarah Hoover shares postpartum depression battle on latest raw episode of The Life of Bryony podcast
Podcast All episodes An author shared her experience overcoming postpartum depression and psychosis on the latest episode of The Life of Bryony podcast. Sarah Hoover, a cultural critic, wrote the acclaimed memoir, The Motherload, offering a candid exploration of motherhood and marriage. Speaking to Daily Mail Columnist Bryony Gordon, the author recounted how a traumatic birth left her feeling 'strange' years after her son was born. 'I was having all these intrusive thoughts', the author said. 'This is the paradox: I hated being a mother at this stage. I thought I had ruined my life and that I didn't love my child. 'I didn't feel connected to him – and yet, every night I would have nightmares. Every night, I watched my son die. On some level, I cared so deeply. 'I was scared to walk downstairs with him. I thought if I took his pram out, a car would hit me, and he would be left all on his own and someone would take him. 'I had a jillion fears. I was constantly afraid.' The author admitted to using recreational drugs 'as a coping mechanism' to escape the shame of her lack of maternal feeling. Sarah remembered encouraging friends to bring her illicit substances instead of gifts at her baby shower. 'When I had postpartum depression, I partied so much. It was the only time I felt alive', Sarah told the podcast. 'I did not know what else to do. Looking back, I wish I had gone to therapy and got antidepressants. 'That didn't even occur to me – I thought the easiest path to feeling alive again was getting messed up. 'I felt agency over my body had been stripped from me. I am surprised I wasn't promiscuous and didn't cheat on my husband. 'It was like – this body has been through so much. It's been trashed. I am just going to keep going.' Sarah remembered developing feelings of resentment towards her partner, who she began to see as 'useless' in supporting her. 'There's no woman who's married to a man who feels like her husband is useful after they give birth', she said. 'The only other times I felt alive was when I was filled with rage while looking at my husband. 'He felt useless on purpose, and it was driving me nuts. He became a third child.' Sarah stressed that only by doing the 'hard work' of beginning a regimen of antidepressants and therapy was she able to shift her depression. 'It was a long road', she began. 'The first thing that helped was going on antidepressants. I went on SSRIs. I was scared to take them – but when I did, they gave me the ability to voice my intrusive thoughts. 'It helps to share all the dark stuff within you. It took two years of therapy and being on antidepressants, but I started to love parenting. 'There were years that I didn't feel connected to my child. It was a very long process, but it was totally worth it. 'It was the hardest work I could emotionally do, but doing it meant I now love my kid. That's a massive gift. 'Seeing the world through his eyes every day is the most fun I have ever had.' To hear the full episode featuring acclaimed author Sarah Hoover, search for The Life of Bryony now, wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are released every Monday.
Daily Mail
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE 'It changed the trajectory of my life': Singer Delta Goodrem, 40, discusses shock teenage cancer diagnosis and losing her voice at 30 on new Mail podcast
Podcast All episodes From a shock teenage cancer diagnosis to having to relearn how to speak at 30, Australian singer Delta Goodrem discussed the health battles that transformed her career on the latest episode of the Mail's Life of Bryony podcast. Delta, 40, is one of Australia's most decorated female singer-songwriters. The former partner of Westlife singer Brian McFadden signed her first recording contract at only 15 years old and her 2003 debut album 'Innocent Eyes' topped charts for 29 weeks. Before embarking on her first world tour at 18, Delta was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, an aggressive type of blood cancer. During her time battling the disease, the singer founded the Delta Goodrem Foundation, which has raised over $120 million for blood cancer research. Speaking to Mail columnist Bryony Gordon, Delta recounted the two greatest health challenges of her life: the early cancer diagnosis and the 'game-changing' moment she lost her voice after having an operation on her throat. 'It was incredible', Delta began. 'My album was taking off – I was coming over to the UK to do Top of the Pops and then I found a lump in my neck. 'I was getting tired all the time and I felt my immune system was kind of breaking down. I thought that maybe I wasn't looking after myself enough – I was doing 14-hour signings. 'I was due to fly to the US, but I had a strange feeling. I had some biopsies done – and I was then diagnosed, at the same time that the world had just taken my music in. 'It changed the trajectory of my life completely. The whole country was sitting outside my front door watching me and my family go through this thing the best we could. 'I knew everything was going to be very different. How do you all of a sudden go from planes, trains, and automobiles to this being your life?' Though the diagnosis 'hurt' physically and emotionally, Delta doesn't view that period negatively because of the 'triumph' of her foundation's work. 'I don't see the cancer as dark, I see it as a triumph', she said. Years after recovering from one major career setback, Delta suffered another in 2018, having to undergo an operation that forced her to relearn how to speak 'Ever since my diagnosis, we have raised a lot of money. I have been ride or die with those people that saved me for many years now. 'I cannot look at that as dark. I look at it like – life made sure I could be of service to people.' Years after recovering from one major career setback, Delta suffered another in 2018, having to undergo an operation that forced her to relearn how to speak. A buildup of calcium in her salivary gland formed a small stone which later became lodged in her throat. 'That was a very surrendering moment', she explained. 'Everything was kind of washed off the bone. I was so glad that was private – because I needed some time. I lived out of the city in my family home - and my beautiful partner was with me. 'It was game-changing actually – having a moment to get away from all the noise.' Delta Goodrem's memoir, Bridge Over Troubled Dreams, is out now.
