Amanda de Cadenet's mental health journey: 'I don't get into unhealthy situations'
Amanda de Cadenet has spoken of her 'long and extensive' mental health journey, and says now she will not get into situations that will compromise her wellbeing for any amount of money.
The broadcaster, photographer and advocate, who shot to fame as a teenager in the 90s on the controversial Channel 4 show The Word, spoke to Kate Thornton on White Wine Question Time about the toll of having 'built her own roads' throughout her career.
She described the tools she uses to thrive, saying she doesn't just want to be surviving, saying she had depression from childhood and postpartum after the birth of her children.
De Cadenet said: "I, quite frankly, don't do anything that will seriously compromise my mental health at this point. I don't work with people, I don't get into situations that are unhealthy to the best of my ability.
"I just won't do it. You couldn't pay me enough money to get into a circumstance, that is going to cost me my mental health, it's just not worth it for me.
WATCH: Amanda de Cadenet on her most important conversations, calling out companies who don't support women, and hosting Channel 4's The Word as a teenager
"I have to do certain things to keep myself balanced and to keep myself grounded and to keep myself okay."
She also spoke in the episode about the 'bullying' she had experienced from the British press which led her to her decision to move to LA as a pregnant 19-year-old with her then husband, Duran Duran's John Taylor.
She also has teenage twins with her husband, The Strokes guitarist Nick Valensi.
De Cadenet explained she finds group therapy useful, as well as meditation and eating well, getting enough sleep, and being in nature.
"Those are the things that I try to do every single day, and I'm quite protective about those things," she said. "It's like, no, don't f**k with those things. Those things are happening."
Since moving to LA she has worked as a photographer and launched The Conversation where she has interviewed guests from Lady Gaga to Hillary Clinton.
She told Thornton: "This is my one life, I don't want to be surviving, I want to be thriving. So how do I do that?
"I'm pretty committed to that path, I'm pretty committed to myself in that regard, then I can be the best mother, then I can show up and bring whatever gifts I have to the world.
"I can show up for my partner, otherwise, I can't do any of it."
When she was launching The Conversation in the UK, five years ago, de Cadenet said she was shocked when she asked who the women on TV were who had their own shows, and realised there weren't any.
She said women were 'allowed to talk about daytime stuff that is fluffy and light' and that it was largely the same in the US.
"Women are not allowed to get into [harder] stuff," she said. "We're just not given the platform. And that remains the case today. You have to keep making your own platform."
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She said the process of making her own road was something she had done for her whole career and asked why women should have to do it.
The 50-year-old said: "Not only are you trying to have a career, that is hard enough in itself, but you have to build the road as well.
"Is it is so exponentially exhausting to have to do that, and that's what I've done my entire career. And I wish it wasn't the case because of my gender, but it is."
WATCH: Amanda de Cadenet on hosting The Word and being in the tabloids as a teenager
