Tears of joy as Sophie Grégoire Trudeau launches her book in Old Montreal

There were tears and cheers as Sophie Grégoire Trudeau launched her book Closer Together: Knowing Ourselves, Loving Each Other among friends and family Monday night at the Gault Hotel in Old Montreal.

Grégoire Trudeau has been on a media blitz in recent days, including an appearance on the season finale of the hit Quebec talk show Tout le monde en parle on Sunday night, but this was different.

Article content

“I’m looking at the room and I’m not going to cry,” she said, fighting back tears. “I recognize faces that I have loved, adored, that have been there for me in the incredible moments of my life, and also in the most difficult moments. You know who you are. You believed in me from the beginning. I want to thank everyone I’ve played with in this room. Who have I had adventures with here?

People booed and raised their hands as Grégoire Trudeau completed his thought: “Another one is starting.”

Billed as a personalized guide to prioritizing our mental health, Closer Together is a mix of memoir and sociocultural survey from some of the world’s leading thinkers on the subject, sharing insights on childhood and raising teenagers. On the back cover of the book are words of praise from Hillary Rodham Clinton, Arianna Huffington, Liz Plank and Gabor Maté.

“I am filled with gratitude,” Grégoire Trudeau told the Gazette in an interview as the event began. “It is my content and my story. “When you show emotional vulnerability, it is a sign of strength and I hope it encourages people to look deeper within themselves to find peace and balance in their own lives, because there are a lot of people who are hurting right now.”

Article content

Grégoire Trudeau is candid in the book about her own experience with eating disorders and anxiety on the path to mindfulness, self-awareness, and self-love. She believes this first-hand experience allows her to understand what other people go through.

“We are all trauma away from each other,” he said. “I learned a while ago, but this book confirmed to me that we have much more power as human beings to influence the way we perceive ourselves with kindness and strength.”

Although she has lived a glamorous life as Canada’s first lady for almost a decade, Grégoire Trudeau emphasized that fame, achievement and material wealth have little to do with mental health.

“You could be in a big house with all the cars you want, all the objects you ever dreamed of and still be unhappy,” he said, “because you’re not emotionally regulated and you don’t have that inner richness that fills you.” you. We are all afraid of being abandoned. “We all want to be loved for who we are.”

Closer Together is divided into three sections, one of which is titled Transitions. It is a topic that Grégoire Trudeau knows a lot about. In August of last year, she and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced they were separating after 18 years of marriage. But as the book’s cover attests, at least one thing remains the same: she keeps the “Trudeau” in his last name.

“The dilemma is that I would like everyone to call me Sophie,” she said. “I’ve been called ma’am for years and it’s like, ‘Nooo, please stop, I want you to call me Sophie; IM Sofia. When Grégoire is there, it’s important to me, but you have to be realistic: this book will be published in different countries and people there have no idea who Sophie or Sophie Grégoire is, and that’s okay. I understand that for the last 10 years, that’s how people know me and I’m proud of it. I do not have any problem with that”.

So will she still be a Trudeau for the foreseeable future?

“We’ll see how people relate,” he said, “and what they call me.”

[email protected]

Twitter.com/TCaDunlevy

Recommended by Editorial