Interview: Amanda de Cadenet on Loving "Women's Women" Jane Fonda, Gwyneth Paltrow, and More

We explained why we're excited for photographer and British TV personality Amanda de Cadenet's new show The Conversation, and now we want to share our interview with her! We chatted with the motorcycle-riding mom of three (who's married to a rocker, no less) about everything from sex positions to The Bachelor to the benefits of marriage, but what Amanda's really passionate about is the plight of today's women. On her new show The Conversation, which debuts today on Lifetime, Amanda gets into some heavy topics with famous women like Jane Fonda, Kelly Preston, Zoe Saldana, Sarah Silverman, and Gwyneth Paltrow. And she couldn't help but gush about her ladies, who she says are "truly women's women," in addition to opening up about how our sex as a whole needs to start sticking together. Here's what she said:
TrèsSugar: What did you learn from doing these interviews?
Amanda de Cadenet: That women globally are addressing very similar issues in their lives, and that we're not actually that different. I've met so many good people, and that was really the overwhelming feeling: Wow, there are some good people on the planet.
TS: What part of a woman's life do you think we're most scared to talk about?
AC: I would say people have a lot of shame about their relationships. Most women who I know have stayed in a less-than ideal relationship for way too long, and they get embarrassed to say, "Yeah I'm still with this person because I just can't leave."
Or people are uncomfortable saying, "I hate the way my body looks." It's just not PC to be down on your body these days, but the truth is that most of us are. So I love that my ladies are very outspoken about their bodies and how they feel about them. There's been this kind of picture painted, a standard that's been set, by whom I don't really know, that to be a woman who's having a successful life you have to be OK with your body, be earning enough money, be in a relationship. If you're a woman of a certain age you're supposed to have children. You're supposed to be conforming to society's idea of what it means to be a successful woman. None of us are, by the way. And that's part of what The Conversation is about: Who created this notion of what it means to be a woman on the planet? Because none of us are living up to it. And the reality is what we're actually talking about on the show, which is that no one's doing it perfectly. We're all doing the best we can do. And Jane Fonda at 73 says, "I'm finally whole." Gives us all permission to be human, right?
Check out a sneak peek of The Conversation here. And for the rest of the interview and photos of Amanda with some of the women she interviewed, keep reading!
Photos courtesy of A&E Television Networks LLC
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