Happy Place with Fearne Cotton
Fearne Cotton talks to incredible people about life, love, loss, and everything in-between as she reveals what happiness means to them. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Episodes
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Coleen Rooney: Marriage takes work! Coping with the press and raising four kids
Monday, 11 November 2024
How good are you at being honest with other people? Go on, be honest with yourself about that one! Coleen Rooney would always rather tell the truth before a situation escalates. In this chat with Fearne, Coleen explains how she’s instilling that honesty is the best policy in her four sons, as well as why she’s so grateful to have a village around her to help raise her boys. With four children, Coleen is in a lot of school gate WhatsApp groups, so she and Fearne spill what really goes down in those wild group chats... They also chat about how she and husband Wayne prioritise time as a couple...
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"Get comfortable with people not liking you!" Florence Given on embracing the cringe
Monday, 4 November 2024
Do you cringe at other people’s joy? Author and illustrator Florence Given reckons cringing at others is telling you something about how you feel about yourself... In this chat Fearne and Florence get into how to really start living unapologetically as your full delicious self. Cringing at others might be showing you’re a bit pissed off that someone else is able to do something you want permission to. Florence explains how anxiety from being bullied at school kick-started her questioning everything the world was telling her. Why do I have to be ‘pretty’? Why am I ‘too much’? Why do I care a...
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Book Club Meets: Desire, hormones, and tampons, with Miranda July
Friday, 1 November 2024
Would you rip up your current life and reinvent yourself if you had the chance? Do you have desires you’d want to explore? Maybe there are hidden parts of yourself you’ve never had the chance to get to know? Which societal rules would you want to ignore? Author Miranda July asks all these questions in October’s Happy Place Book Club novel: All Fours. She picks apart how we can fall into the monotony of every day routine instead of acknowledging the wild emotions and longings inside us. In this chat, Fearne and Miranda talk about fluctuating hormones, pressures of motherhood, sexual fantasie...
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Perrie Edwards: Friendship Break Ups, The Cost of Fame and Facing Criticism as a Working Mum
Monday, 28 October 2024
A panic attack can feel like you’re dying from a heart attack; this is something former Little Mix member Perrie Edwards has experienced numerous times over the last few years. In this chat, Perrie talks about how her anxiety feels like her adult is ‘going offline’, leaving the child in her crying for help, and Fearne shares how she’s managed to stop having panic attacks (for now, at least). You might be good at advocating for the people you love, but how good are you at advocating for yourself and your own needs? Possibly a bit rubbish? Perrie explains how she’s got better at speaking her ...
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Understanding neurodiversity: managing ADHD and getting diagnoses
Friday, 25 October 2024
It’s ADHD Awareness Month, so Fearne’s reflecting on some of the conversations she’s had about neurodiversity on the show that’ll hopefully help you understand either yourself, or someone you love, even better... First, what are the signs and symptoms of ADHD? Do you recognise more of the hyperactive & impulsive symptoms like rashly spending money and substance addiction, or the inattentive ones like problems with working memory and organisation? Then there’s chat about how having undiagnosed ADHD can lead to mental health problems, why there’s so much shame in the neurodivergent community,...
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Tulisa: Abundance mindset, court cases, and hobbit holes
Monday, 21 October 2024
You can choose to be bitter, or you can choose to be at peace. This is something Tulisa has learnt after numerous testing life experiences: that we each have the power to choose contentment over anger.In this chat with Fearne, Tulisa talks about the real sink or swim moments that could have seen her drown, but helped build resilience instead, including multiple high profile court cases.She explains how she’s got to a point where she genuinely doesn’t mind if she’s liked or not – something Fearne wants to learn how to get better at – as well as how being a young carer for her mum still affec...
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Olivia Attwood: Botox, catastrophising, and trolls
Monday, 14 October 2024
Botox, fillers, and surgeries – you’re judged if you do and you’re judged if you don’t. Love Islander & documentary maker Olivia Attwood is clear that the critical narrative about women’s looks is just a tactic used to control us regardless of what we choose to do to our bodies. In this chat, live from the Happy Place Festival, Fearne and Olivia ask if our mental health is suffering in our pursuit of physical perfection. Plus, they’re both candid about what work they have and haven’t had done. Olivia also opens up about how fearful and shy she used to be. Maybe you often feel blocked by a l...
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David Tennant: Internal voices, LGBTQ+ activism, and 80s nostalgia
Monday, 7 October 2024
Do you get stage fright? You might not be an actor but perhaps you feel the fear when it comes to work presentations or small talk at parties... well, even critically acclaimed actor David Tennant has anxieties around performing under pressure. He reckons little bit of fear can be good to keep you from getting complacent though... In this chat, Fearne and David talk through how to work through those moments when you feel your brain is going to give up on you. The naivety of youth can give you a sense of self-confidence, but with age comes the security of having more concrete experiences of ...
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Leah Williamson: Switching off, determination, and women’s football
Monday, 30 September 2024
You’re more capable than you think you are. Footballer Leah Williamson has learnt that setbacks are often an opportunity to prove and strengthen your resilience. In this chat with Fearne, Leah explains how getting through a major injury has made her love the person she is now more than the one she was before because of the way she looks after herself. Leah talks about the importance of listening to your own body, and trusting what it’s trying to tell you rather than ignoring or overriding it. There’s also food for thought on why we shouldn’t feel guilty for taking proper time out from our r...
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Alex Partridge: Neurodiversity, masking, and workplace inclusion
Wednesday, 25 September 2024
Do you A) assume everyone probably hates you? B) react impulsively to criticism? C) feel intense shame about the way your brain works? These are all things UNILAD founder Alex Partridge has felt across his life, but at 34 he was diagnosed with ADHD and his character started to make a little more sense...In this chat with Fearne, live from the Happy Place Festival, Alex explains how his diagnosis allowed him to reframe the characteristics he had previously been troubled by, turning shame into compassion.If you personally don’t have a neurodivergent brain, you probably work with someone, have...
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Gary and Emma Neville: Menopause, anxiety attacks, and opposites attracting
Monday, 23 September 2024
Are you a Gary or an Emma? He thrives with a super social, demanding itinerary, and she’s all about lovely calm solitude. Gary Neville has had an ambitious drive instilled in him by his parents and his football career; his wife Emma is more reserved and serene, but they reckon opposites definitely attract. Fearne had two goals for this chat, live at the Happy Place Festival: to get Gary into wellness, and to marry the subjects of football and menopause... Emma experienced early menopause, and Gary admits to some of the errors he’s made in talking to her about her symptoms, but they also tal...
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Gemma Styles: ADHD, rejection, and radical honesty
Monday, 16 September 2024
Your brain isn’t broken; this is the reassurance influencer Gemma Styles wants you to have. Your brain is doing its best to cope with modern society – we need to be fixing our systems not blaming our brains for poor mental health. In this chat with Fearne, Gemma – who’s an ambassador for MQ Mental Health Research – explains why understanding the science behind how her ADHD brain works helps her be kinder to herself. Do you compare and despair whenever you scroll through social media? Gemma has over 10 million followers on Instagram and offers advice for checking in with yourself on how bein...
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Gillian Anderson: Sexual fantasies, orgasm gaps, and shame
Monday, 9 September 2024
What is your deepest sexual desire? Where do you think it comes from? Gillian Anderson has collected a series of anonymous fantasies in her new book, Want, and she wonders that at the heart of so many fantasies is the longing to be seen for who we really are. In this chat Fearne and Gillian explore why a lack of self-esteem might be affecting women’s experience of sex, and what a deeply personal fantasy might say about gender relations in wider society. Gillian offers advice about how to ‘act as if...’, that is, fake it ‘til you make it if you’re lacking confidence in the bedroom. She talks...
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Book Club Meets: Soulmates, swiping culture, and difficult decisions, with Holly Gramazio
Friday, 6 September 2024
Would you be a different version of you if you’d surrounded yourself with different people? This is something the plot of The Husbands, the Happy Place Book Club pick for August, explores. In this chat with Fearne, live at the Happy Place Festival, author Holly Gramazio explains why she wanted to examine the idea that different relationships could significantly impact your lifestyle and personality. She reckons there’s more than one way for you to be happy and for you to be yourself; there’s not necessarily a clear, correct choice about who you should date, what job you should have, or wher...
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Lucinda Miller: Neurodivergence, brain health, and ultraprocessed foods
Monday, 2 September 2024
What you eat is having a direct effect on your mood and behaviour. Naturopath and functional medicine practitioner Lucinda Miller wants to help your brain thrive. In this chat with Fearne, Lucinda talks about her own ADHD diagnosis and how changing her eating habits has changed her ability to cope with day-to-day life. Learn what it means to have a neurodivergent brain, and how symptoms can be managed with diet and nutrition. A neurodivergent brain may use five times the brain area of a neurotypical brain to do just one simple task, so proper fuelling with nutritious food is essential. Luci...
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Tell self-limiting beliefs to bugger off: Live from Chiswick Festival
Friday, 30 August 2024
Can you confidently say: “I like myself”? What would it take for you to get to that place? The Happy Place Festival Talk Stage hosted loads of speakers across the weekend at Chiswick House and Gardens, and Fearne wants to bring you in on the Festival magic! You’ll hear parts of the talks given by Gabby Bernstein, Roxie Nafousi, Lisa Snowdon, Paul C Brunson, Will Young, and Dawn O’Porter, and learn a little bit from each of them about how to unapologetically be yourself.During this episode, you’ll explore what limiting beliefs are holding you back, how to get clarity around who you want to b...
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Matt Haig: Self-criticism, anxiety triggers, and imagination
Monday, 26 August 2024
The bad times are intimately connected to the good. Author Matt Haig thinks happiness is only happiness because sadness exists. In this chat, Fearne and Matt talk about how hindsight can be an incredibly healing perspective shifter. He’s found closure, progress, and contentment by revisiting memories that were previously traumatising. How good are you at facing up to your traumas rather than running away? Matt explains how he stopped finding excuses and blaming external factors – people or places – when really there was internal work to do. Plus, by trying to avoid triggers, are we just mak...
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Jason Donovan: Reinvention, creating luck, and floppy flowers
Monday, 19 August 2024
We don’t get lucky, we create our own luck. Jason Donovan has achieved great success, but has worked incredibly hard to actively create his happy lifestyle. In this chat with Fearne – live from the Happy Place Festival – Jason explains how we can choose to view moments of adversity as moments for change and reinvention. Are you completely single-minded in your pursuit of your dreams, or do you like to have a realistic plan B? Fearne and Jason wonder where the best balance lies. Plus, Fearne reveals the extent of her teenage obsession with Jason, and Jason reveals the secret to a long marria...
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Yungblud: Dark thoughts, social anxiety, and being disliked
Monday, 12 August 2024
Do you think it’s uncool to be excited? Artist Yungblud wants us to marvel at the world; it’s life-affirming to be properly enthusiastic about stuff. In this chat, Fearne and Yungblud talk about why we need to be done with being cool and distant. Instead, they share how to make sure you’re not dulling yourself down or putting filters on your real character. Yungblud wears his heart – and his pain – on his sleeve, and explains why sharing dark thoughts can be a beautiful thing. Social media, he says, has helped us be more fearless because there will always be a tribe somewhere who will accep...
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Alex Jones: Making mistakes, being present, and chaotic family holidays
Monday, 5 August 2024
Do you get frustrated by everyone asking you “what’s next?” Presenter Alex Jones reckons there’s too much pressure to bypass being content in the moment, particularly when it comes to our careers. In this chat, live from the Happy Place Festival, Fearne and Alex say there’s no shame – in fact there’s real beauty – in sitting still and enjoying the moment. There’s also a nice bit of gossip about Dolly Parton, Jared Leto, Art Garfunkel, and Richard & Judy... Massive thanks to British Airways Holidays for sponsoring the Happy Place Festival Talk Stage. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy fo...
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Book Club Meets: Orgies, PTSD, and bodies, with Sofie Hagen
Friday, 2 August 2024
Are you having the sex you want? Comedian and author Sofie Hagen reckons there are loads of things standing in the way of pleasure – everything from gender identity and body image, to parenting and the cost of living crisis. In this Book Club episode – recorded live at the Happy Place Festival – Sofie tells Fearne why they haven’t had sex for 3000 days and counting... and why they’ve written about it in ‘Will I Ever Have Sex Again?’ What does sex mean to you? Sofie wonders if it’s about ‘enjoying bodies’, but how can you relax into desire if you have self-loathing around your body, or don’t...
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Rachel Stevens: Self-worth, worrying, and S Club whirlwinds
Monday, 29 July 2024
Do you have the confidence to speak up and say “no”? Rachel Stevens has learnt it’s ok to stand up for yourself and have a voice. In this chat with Fearne – live from the Happy Place Festival – Rachel talks about how emotions are messy, and they’re better spoken out loud imperfectly than not at all. They also chat about the early years of S Club 7; the band gave Rachel safety and structure when she needed to escape from a difficult family life. But over time it wore down her autonomy and independence; she explains how she found her voice so that you can too. Plus, are you a worrier? Fearne ...
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How your childhood affects your parenting style
Friday, 26 July 2024
Petrified that your parenting is screwing your kid up? Crying out for support from people around you? Fearne’s pulled together some stories and advice from Happy Place guests who’ll make you feel more empowered and less alone in raising children. Not a parent? Not to worry! You’ll learn just as much about how to regulate your own emotions, how your childhood is affecting your behaviour today, and why feminism might have sold women an unrealistic dream... You’ll hear from Paloma Faith on the pressure for women to ‘have it all’, Kate Ferdinand on caring for her blended family, and Gabor Maté ...
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Zandra Rhodes: Self-belief, workaholics, and sentimental hoarding
Monday, 22 July 2024
Would you describe yourself as a workaholic? Fashion designer Zandra Rhodes has an insatiable sense of drive that’s fuelled her iconic career since the 1960s. In this chat with Fearne, Zandra is honest about how she threw herself into work as a way to cope with things like the death of the love of her life, and her own cancer diagnosis. Zandra is very clear that we need our own sense of creativity, colour, and vibrancy in life. She explains why it’s so vital to have self-belief, and how to make sure you’re not compromising your own values and style for other people. There’s also the story o...
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Ella Mills: Victim mentality, apathy, and fad diets
Monday, 15 July 2024
Do you think of yourself as a victim of circumstance? Ella Mills – the founder of Deliciously Ella – used to live with a sense that life was unfair to her. Now, she knows that ultimately the only person in charge of your life is you. In this chat with Fearne, Ella talks about realising apathy was a symptom of depression, and explains why sometimes you have to hit rock bottom in order to acknowledge what needs to change. Ella and Fearne also talk about why the way we eat has become so emotive and divisive. They reckon we should be focusing on sharing joyful knowledge that will make us all he...
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A meditation for self-love, with Rob da Bank
Monday, 8 July 2024
Make yourself comfy in a quiet space. Lie down if you can. Meditation teacher Rob da Bank is here to guide you through a Yoga Nidra practice. This is 20 minutes of uninterrupted time for you, to feel a little more self-love, and to move you into a deeply restful place through guided mental imagery, intention setting, and breathing exercises. Head back to the Happy Place feed to listen to Fearne’s chat with Rob da Bank. For even more of Rob’s Yoga Nidra practices, download the Happy Place app. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Rob da Bank: Burnout, patience, and festivals
Monday, 8 July 2024
We’re all so used to being in a constant fight or flight mode, you might not even realise that your body has the potential to be in a much calmer state. In this chat with Fearne, DJ and meditation teacher Rob da Bank explains how practicing Yoga Nidra is a way to help your body digest stress. He also talks about why we all need to slow down to combat burnout, and how sauna and cold water therapy can help with this. Plus, Fearne and Rob both share the stressful behind the scenes realities of organising big festivals – Happy Place Festival and Bestival respectively – as well as how they see t...
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Iwan Thomas: Self-loathing, hard graft, and soft play
Monday, 1 July 2024
It can feel awful when other people judge you, but it can be even worse when you judge yourself. Despite his immense achievements, Former European, Commonwealth and World Champion 400m medallist Iwan Thomas is no stranger to self-loathing. In this chat with Fearne, Iwan talks about the innate need to make our parents proud throughout our lives, as well as how becoming a dad himself has changed his outlook on life. They also try to figure out the balance of pushing your kid to believe in themselves, without stressing them out with too much pressure. Iwan is honest about the reality of feelin...
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How to stick two fingers up to beauty standards
Friday, 28 June 2024
Summer body ready? How about your summer skin and hair? Fearne knows you might be feeling the pressure to look a certain way – both right now, and across your lifetime – so she’s reflecting on Happy Place episodes that stick two fingers up to made up beauty standards and body ideals. You'll learn how to challenge all those social norms dictating how we should look, with some help from chair of the Body Dysmorphic Disorder Foundation, Rob Wilson, broadcaster Amanda De Cadanet, and activist Emma Dabiri. Plus, hear some deeply personal stories of how things like age, race, disability, and weig...
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Grace Beverley: Entrepreneurs, productivity, and gussets
Monday, 24 June 2024
Do you feel burnt out, but also like you’re not achieving enough? Entrepreneur Grace Beverley believes implementing clear boundaries can be the secret to success. In this chat with Fearne, Grace talks through the hard and fast lifestyle rules she sticks to in order to keep her mental health in check, and why self-care needs to be reframed as a valid form of productivity. And stick around to the end, because there are some proper productivity hacks for your daily to do list! Grace also explains the various routes for businesses to get funding... and why they’re so often not available to wome...
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