Forever Friends?

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Personal Journals

4.2 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2023

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What happens when a friendship breaks down? How can you repair it? Should you even try? In this special Sunday podcast, Nuala McGovern brings together all the interviews from Woman's Hour's 'Forever Friends?' series. Annie and Lizzie first met at school, and Lizzie said she believed they were ‘kindred spirits’. But soon after Annie’s first child was born, Lizzie decided to cut off contact. They reflect on this period of silence and how their relationship has changed since they have rekindled the friendship. Daniella and Nataliya – Nat and Dan - also met at school. An argument caused by gossip when they were both 17 led to the break-up of their friendship, but they reunited years later. They are now both in their thirties, living in London. They share their perspectives on how romantic relationships can impact close friendships. Nina is a Woman's Hour listener who contacted the programme after hearing the series. She wanted to share her experience of repairing a long-term friendship. Listener Christina was also inspired to reach out after hearing stories of friendship on Woman's Hour. Having ended contact with three close friends in four years, Christina wanted to ask if she was the reason her friendships kept falling apart. Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Hatty Nash

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts
0:04.9	Hello and welcome to a special edition of the Woman's Hour podcast.
0:09.7	Over the past year we've had a series of interviews on the programme on the topic
0:14.4	Forever Friends? Question mark, yes the question mark is key
0:19.2	because we wanted to explore what happens when friendships go through those rocky patches.
0:24.6	How does it feel when things go wrong? How can we repair friendships
0:29.1	and should we even try? We've pushed all the interviews together for a special Sunday episode
0:35.1	off the podcast so now you don't even get a break from us on a Sunday. So coming up, matching
0:41.5	friendship tattoos, a good or bad idea, two friends describe how they've marked their friendship
0:48.0	permanently and when do you have to ask yourself am I the problem? One guest tells us about the
0:54.7	soul searching she's been doing after losing three close friendships in four years. But first
1:01.5	Flea Bag writer Phoebe Wallerbridge said a wonderful line on this very programme a couple of years
1:07.2	ago. Friendships are the greatest romances of our lives. It's a sentiment that resonated with a lot
1:14.7	of you. For our guests Annie and Lizzie that was certainly the case. They first met at school
1:20.8	and Lizzie said she believed they were kindred spirits. They spoke separately to our reporter
1:26.8	Joe Maris about their long friendship. You'll hear from Lizzie first. I met my life partner in
1:34.9	my early fifties and up to that point friendship was, I mean obviously friendship is still
1:40.7	it's important but I know that my life emotionally pivoted around my friends. I think my friends
1:47.5	would say that I'm a good friend and I maintain friendships and I worked them so therefore when
1:55.6	my friendship with Annie fell apart that was probably quite a catastrophe actually in the sense of
2:03.0	now retrospectively realising that I had given up something that was actually really important to me.
2:10.8	I don't have many photos but I have a collection of photos that my mum put together for my
	...

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