Dawn O'Porter

Happy Place

Fearne Cotton

Society & Culture, Mental Health, Health & Fitness, Relationships, Personal Journals

4.6 • 15.2K Ratings

🗓️ 7 November 2022

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Stereotypes – the cat lady, the mother, the wife – can make us feel we need to play a part to fit the role others have cast us as. Broadcaster and author Dawn O’Porter wonders whether, far from being an entirely negative thing, sometimes that’s a necessary survival method.

In this chat, Fearne and Dawn share their experiences of grief after losing their cats, as well as their thoughts on making a point of crying when they’re alone. Dawn says she has a bit of a rebellious spirit, and explores how she’s very much a product of her early years.

Dawn’s novel, Cat Lady, is available now.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Happy Place with me, Fern Cotton. This is the show that helps
0:06.6	piece together what makes you, you. Today I'm chatting to Dorno Porter.
0:12.4	My mum died when she was 36 and one thing that I always had inside of me from
0:17.9	being a teenager, as soon as I got to drama school, as soon as I got to the mainland
0:20.9	and I was like, free, I always felt like I was running out of time. That slowed
0:25.1	down significantly now. I realised I'm not, I have got no more chance of running out
0:29.5	of time than anybody else. Now I kind of passed that 36 age and realised I've already
0:34.5	defied history, everything's okay but that drove me. I think that was why I was so productive,
0:39.6	so young and so determined, just if what if, what if the same thing happens.
0:43.8	Dorno was on our TV screens for many, many years here in the UK, particularly on the BBC
0:49.6	and Channel 4. She now lives in LA with her actor, husband, Chris O'Dowd, their gorgeous
0:55.1	kids and of course, her cats. I say of course, because her latest novel is called Cat Lady,
1:02.4	which is a term that's generally used as a bit of an insult. Although not, I'm like
1:07.5	out and proud as a cat lady, I love being a cat lady. I've never understood how being
1:11.4	a cat lady could possibly be a bad thing. It's like the best thing ever. Anyway, that stereotype
1:18.2	is something Dorno digs into in this book, as well as looking at mother figures, both
1:24.2	who we look to as that nurturer and how we act as mothers ourselves. I really loved reading
1:30.2	this book so much. This chat did end up centering a lot around the grief of losing a pet,
1:36.2	because it's something both Dorno and I have experienced very recently. And it can be
1:40.7	pretty hard to know when and where you're allowed to express that mourning and to who.
1:45.4	So I think we both appreciated having a fellow cat lover to share stories with.
1:50.3	This episode of Happy Place is brought to you by Dyson and their special edition of Vincoblue
	...

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