Sophie Grégoire Trudeau shares more about her life, her struggles and her split from Justin Trudeau as she publishes a new book exploring issues of mental health and the universal need for human connection.
“Without human connection, we see that we can get sick,” Grégoire Trudeau said in an interview to promote the book on CP24 Breakfast.
In the book ‘Closer Together: Knowing Ourselves, Loving Each Other,’ Grégoire Trudeau shares mental health insights he has gained from experts over the past 20 years and said they are especially relevant now, given the various crises facing the world.
He said the world needs more “emotional leadership” in a world where people feel constantly on alert.
“And what is emotional leadership? Taking a breath when you don’t want to, resolving conflict and calming down when you really want to shout and scream, feeling your emotions rise and being able to regulate your nervous system.”
Grégoire Trudeau also spoke about his split from the Prime Minister, saying that the two still love each other, although their relationship has changed.
“You know, sometimes when you really love someone, you let them off the hook somewhere along the way out of respect and admiration in different ways, even if it’s not convenient,” he said. “It’s not my wish. But when things change, it’s not the end.”
He said it’s important for his children to see that their parents can still get along even though they’re no longer together.
“When we live in a society where success is marriage and divorce is failure, and there is nothing in between, we leave a dramatic emotional burden on children,” he said.
He said that two people can separate and still love each other without it being a contradiction.
“We’re not pretending. We love each other. When I love with all my soul, I love then, I love now and I will always love. It’s not because a structure changes that that love evaporates, and it shouldn’t.”
The couple announced their separation last August and said they would share custody of their three children.
In the book, Grégoire Trudeau addresses several challenges of her own, such as revealing years ago, when she was a radio and television host in Quebec, that she had struggled with an eating disorder.
“I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m not going to get any more contracts after talking about this. They’re going to think, oh, it’s the girl who suffers from this eating disorder’ or whatever. There was a lot more stigma during those days,” shared.
Mental health advocate Grégoire Trudeau said that while there is less stigma around these issues today, the only way to change things is for people to open up and share their stories.
While people think she lives in the spotlight, she said that doesn’t mean they know everything about her.
“What people see is like one percent of my life. I’m a mother and I’m an ally. I’m a friend. I have a lot of other things to do and that keeps me busy.”
Grégoire Trudeau, mother of two teenagers and a 10-year-old boy, said many people are not taught to “sit with our pain without feeling overwhelmed, overwhelmed” and that parents need to prepare their children for the fact that ” “life is painful” and that happiness is not a constant state of being.
“When you dance between light and darkness, between happiness and unhappiness, you realize that we didn’t come to this earth to be happy and rosy and everything is fine; we came here to be aware and responsible for our own individual growth so that we can contribute to the world and people can truly feel a sense of purpose.”
Grégoire Trudeau said those hoping to catch “gossip” in the book, which was written before his split from the prime minister, will be disappointed.
“There’s truth there, there’s authenticity, there’s vulnerability — I think that’s much more constructive than gossip.”
Grégoire Trudeau will appear at a downtown Indigo store in The Well tonight to sign copies of his new book.
– With files from Courtney Heels and Nick Dixon