She was dubbed ‘the wild child’ in the UK when she presented The Word in the early 90s – and left scarred by the experience. After fleeing across the Atlantic, she reinvented herself, as a feminist activist, photographer, talkshow host and now a podcaster
manda de Cadenet. If you are of a certain vintage, that name will probably bring back a Proustian rush of sensory memories: Impulse Vanilla Kisses body spray, the feel of a Primal Scream Screamadelica cassette in your hands, the taste of Hooch on your tongue – all the greatest hits of 1990s Britain.
, amply demonstrated that she has had extensive personal experience with many of the issues – abortion, sexual assault – that she discusses. Her early career, which had once made me doubt her credibility, in fact uniquely qualifies her to address these issues.“I think I became a photographer because of my own experience of being objectified and sexualised, and I wanted to show something other than a male gaze,” she says.
“Oh, I was not unscathed,” she quickly corrects me. “I was badly scathed, and if I had stayed in the UK, I really don’t think I’d be alive today, because I had such PTSD and depression.” De Cadenet was made a ward of court and put in care for seven months. “That was traumatic. But what I learned was my trauma was not special – I felt the same as the kids in the children’s home, no matter how different my life had been. If you ask anyone, they will have a story, and they’ll have dealt with different levels of trauma,” she says.
After she got out of the home, she – incredibly – was invited to host The Word. How on earth did that happen?
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