Happy Place with Fearne Cotton
Fearne Cotton talks to incredible people about life, love, loss, and everything in-between as she reveals what happiness means to them. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Episodes
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Book Club Meets: Sliding doors and the power of a name, with Florence Knapp
Friday, 4 July 2025
Has your name influenced who you’ve become? Would you have different characteristics, would people react differently to you, would your life have turned out differently, if you had a different name? These are the questions author Florence Knapp grapples with in her book The Names – our Happy Place Book Club read for June.In this chat, Fearne and Florence share their own experiences of having slightly unusual names, and how they shaped them. Florence also explains the long journey she’s been on to get a novel published, having started writing in the late ‘90s, and wonders that she likes gett...
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“Feel it, process it, move on!” Mary Earps: How to find gratitude after hardship
Monday, 30 June 2025
Do you trust your gut to make the best decision for yourself? Former England goalkeeper Mary Earps has had to make some bold, brave choices recently.In this chat with Fearne, Mary explains how she knew retiring from international football was right for her, and they both explore the importance of having different chapters and challenges in your life.Having experienced periods of real mental darkness, Mary talks through the practices that now ground her in the present. She also reckons setting life goals might just be setting you up for disappointment. Should we be focusing on progress, inst...
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Seasons change, so will you: Become the thriving person you want to be
Friday, 27 June 2025
Fearne is marking the summer solstice by reflecting on the Happy Place episodes that’ll help you connect with nature, mysticism, and in turn, your inner self. It’s time to get back in touch with who we really are deep down underneath all the external, modern-day trappings of busyness, success and material things. In this episode – -Kirsty Gallagher talks about living alongside nature’s cycles to help you let go of things that are distressing you-Jo Bowlby explains why spirituality is the science of exploring your inner world-Rob Da Bank loves hot and cold practices to help get in touch wi...
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No one would hire me - so I built my own business! Brandon Hulcoop on lifting barriers for blind people
Wednesday, 25 June 2025
23 year old Brandon is the regional winner of the Enterprise category at the 2025 King's Trust Awards. In this chat with Fearne, Brandon explains how, before starting his braille business with the help of The Trust, he had applied for over a thousand jobs without any success. He always struggled to get past the interview stage either due to a lack of experience or due to his visual impairment. Fearne and Brandon explore misconceptions about his visual impairment, the importance of supportive mentorship, and why starting a business has to come with some hilarious trial and error! Plus, Brand...
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Joel Dommett: “Pretending’s the first step!” Build confidence and quieten nerves
Monday, 23 June 2025
Do you find yourself running a mental list of what you’ve got to do tomorrow...next month... instead of living in the moment? Comedian and presenter Joel Dommett is getting better at appreciating the present.In this chat, Fearne and Joel debate if it’s a good or bad thing to set career goals, and explore how to focus on the process rather than an outcome. Joel also has some advice about faking confidence in order to build it, and explains why his marathon efforts brought out his shadow side...Plus, Joel justifies some of his more questionable tattoos, and reveals some big behind the scenes ...
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How to stop saying “yes” when you mean “no”, with Natalie Lue
Monday, 16 June 2025
Who would you choose to be if you weren’t shit scared about what other people might think about you? Writer and speaker Natalie Lue has noticed that people pleasing is often a response to anxiety.In this chat with Fearne, Natalie explains how when you desperately people please, you’re putting your self-esteem on the chopping block. In becoming disassociated from your “no” you become disassociated from your needs, desires, opinions, and limits.Natalie talks through the five ways people pleasing might show up in your life, including ‘efforting’ (e.g. over-achieving at school and work), and ‘s...
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Feel walked over? Mel Robbins on turning pain into personal power
Tuesday, 10 June 2025
Do you feel deep injustice at how others treat you? Mel Robbins is an award-winning podcast host and best-selling author; she says if other people want to behave in a shitty way... let them!In this chat with Fearne, Mel explains the difference between saying “let them”, and letting people walk all over you. She talks about how “let them” doesn’t make your problems disappear, but you’ll see them differently so they’re less distressing to you. The phrase will also make you feel more confident in your authentic self-expression.Feeling victimised? Stop hoping you can change a bully’s behaviour....
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Book Club Meets: Ambitious women and generational trauma, with Emily Henry
Friday, 6 June 2025
Two writers are competing for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of a famous reclusive heiress. One of them is going to uncover the truth behind one of the most scandalous families of the 20th century. The thing is, heiress Margaret is giving each writer different tantalising little pieces of her story...Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry was May’s Happy Place Book Club read. In this chat with Fearne, Emily explains why she’s intrigued by the idea of generational trauma affecting our day to day, and why it’s important to interrogate where your sense of ambition comes from. I...
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Munroe Bergdorf: “I’m scared for my safety!” Bodily autonomy & femininity as armour
Monday, 2 June 2025
Identity has become tribal, and it’s stopping us understanding each other’s humanity. Activist, writer, and model Munroe Bergdorf explains how fear and anger for society’s issues have been misdirected towards trans people.In this chat with Fearne, Munroe talks through what the recent UK Supreme Court ruling on biological sex and gender means for trans women, cis women, and society more widely. How, for example, are trans rights intimately connected to abortion rights?Fearne and Munroe chat about how to practice self-acceptance, particularly around body image, and how to use your voice to cr...
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The Good Girl rebellion: How to stop caring if you’re likeable
Friday, 30 May 2025
Fearne’s been thinking a lot lately about how much of her life she’s spent people pleasing as a result of wanting to be liked. So today, how to break free from the ‘good girl’ your family, friends, colleagues, and society expect you to be...In this episode –-Louise Redknapp clarifies why being described as ‘nice’ isn’t a compliment and how she’s gone about making people see her as a multi-faceted human-Paloma Faith pinpoints the ways women make themselves smaller in order to make others feel more comfortable-Sophie Ellis-Bextor explains how she’s learnt to navigate mum guilt while not minim...
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Ashley Walters: Prison changed my mindset! How to reinvent yourself
Monday, 26 May 2025
How have you come back from your rock bottom? Ashley Walters has reinvented himself over and over again, through music, acting, directing, parenthood, prison, and addiction.In this chat with Fearne, Ashley talks through the mindset that allows him to take accountability for his actions instead of falling into victimhood, and why failure shouldn’t be viewed as an end point.He explains why you should want to be the “dumbest person in the room”, and why if you feel you want to run away from a challenge, it’s exactly the challenge you should take on.Fearne and Ashley tackle the big topics that ...
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Should I have children? Ellie Simmonds on genetic disability diagnoses
Monday, 19 May 2025
What beliefs, hopes, worries, and questions would you have if your unborn baby was given a diagnosis of a disability? It’s something retired paralympic swimmer Ellie Simmonds has spent a lot of time considering.In this chat with Fearne, Ellie explains what she’s learnt from talking to both her parents and her birth mum about their experience of her dwarfism, as well as debating the pros and cons of modern genetic testing.They also chat about Ellie’s decision to retire from swimming: how will you know when it’s time to call something quits, and how can you then cultivate new passions? Plus, ...
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Mo Gilligan: Why success can lead to ego and how to laugh through misery
Monday, 12 May 2025
Is there a reason so many comedians can struggle with their mental health? Mo Gilligan knows all too well that finding the funny in everything can sometimes mean having to suppress sadness. In this chat, Fearne and Mo talk about how a single passing comment can stay with you and eat away at your self-esteem over time, and why we need to be better at celebrating our talent and achievements. Plus, can scrolling through memes be a positive form of escapism when you’re low...? Mo Gilligan: Beginning, Middle, and End is available to listen to now!If you liked this episode of Happy Place, you mig...
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“You’re old, you’ll probably miscarry”: What’s really causing infertility? With Liberty Mills
Monday, 5 May 2025
At age 43 Liberty Mills was told she had a 0.7% chance of having another baby with her own eggs – and that was with the assistance of IVF. But she and her partner decided to continue their fertility journey with the help of integrative medicine, and after a lifestyle overhaul, she conceived her daughter naturally, and gave birth two weeks before her 45th birthday.In this chat with Fearne, Liberty explains how her own experiences inspired her to become a Certified Integrative Health and Nutrition Coach, helping other individuals and couples to amend their lifestyles to optimise their ability...
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Book Club Meets: Homelessness and addiction, with Lorna Tucker
Friday, 2 May 2025
Bare is the vital true story of Lorna Tucker’s fight to survive living on the streets of London. She had to lie, steal, strip, and just about everything in between to survive. This really important portrait of female homelessness was April’s Happy Place Book Club read.In this chat with Fearne, author and filmmaker Lorna explains how chance – those five minutes that seem insignificant at the time – can send your life in a completely different direction.She talks through the reality of all the different reasons people might end up living on the street, and why she has so much empathy, and a d...
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Dannii Minogue: “Resilience is a muscle!” Surviving The X Factor, divorce, and Kylie’s cancer
Monday, 28 April 2025
Does going through a rough time make you untrusting of fleeting joyful moments, or make you lean into them harder? For Dannii Minogue it’s the latter.In this chat with Fearne, Dannii explains why getting divorced and having to borrow money from family, coping with sister Kylie’s cancer, and having her body critiqued by the press have taught her to appreciate happiness when it comes.Fearne and Dannii worked together on The X Factor for a bit, and they both discuss what it was like to work on such a juggernaut programme, and chat about how to understand what boundaries you might need to set i...
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Spring clean your life: how to make a fresh start
Friday, 25 April 2025
Is your lifestyle in need of a spring clean? Maybe now’s the moment to pivot your career, pick up healthier habits, or embrace a new life you wouldn’t have chosen, but now need to make the best of?In this episode, Fearne reflects on the Happy Place episodes that’ll give you a bit of a push – or a bit of inspiration – to get you making that fresh start you’ve been thinking about for ages...In this episode you’ll hear from –-Poet Donna Ashworth on making a slow, organic career change later in life, and re-finding who you really want to be under the crap that real life shovels on top of you-TV...
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Fearne Cotton: “I’m completely out of my depth!” Happy Place turns seven
Monday, 21 April 2025
It’s Happy Place’s 7th birthday! To celebrate, Fearne’s put down her own trusty notebook and let her presenter mate Alex Jones turn the interview tables!In this chat, Alex asks Fearne about Happy Place’s evolution from a podcast, to a book publisher, to a festival, and now a marketplace too.Fearne opens up about feeling bleak and being on anti-depressants before she created Happy Place, as well as all the moments she’s cocked up personally and professionally over the last seven years. Do you have imposter syndrome and a deep desire to be liked? Fearne chats about how to cope with those feel...
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Pete Doherty: “I was seen a wreck head!” The truth behind the headlines
Monday, 14 April 2025
Does anxiety or darkness drive you to create? Is creativity the ultimate catharsis? For musician Pete Doherty making art has, at times, been a matter of survival. In this chat with Fearne, Pete explains why taking drugs was less about trying to escape, and more about what he was trying to find. Now he’s stopped taking drugs, how does he unlock and express his creativity differently? Pete also confirms that ‘addict’ is the right word to describe his behaviour, but that our attitude towards addiction needs to change. Fearne and Pete catch up about the early days of The Libertines, and what Pe...
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Manifesting won’t make you happy: Express true emotion with Estelle Bingham
Monday, 7 April 2025
So many of us have had to shut down our heart and numb our emotions to survive. Estelle Bingham is dubbed ‘The Heart Whisperer’; she knows the greatest anxiety can come from suppressing parts of ourselves. In this chat with Fearne, Estelle – a holistic therapist and healer – explains how when the mind is spiralling out of control, the heart can bring us back to stillness. She shares how to feel your emotions in your body instead of just analysing them in your head. Fearne has done her own personal work with Estelle, and they talk though how Estelle’s guidance can banish shame and put a circ...
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Book Club Meets: First loves and sliding doors, with Clare Leslie Hall
Friday, 4 April 2025
If you had a second chance at your first big love, would you take it? What about if you were already married to a very different kind of person? This is the dilemma Beth is faced with in Broken Country, the Happy Place Book Club novel for March. In this chat Fearne and author Clare Leslie Hall talk about why first love can be so intoxicating, and why it’s only human to feel the pull between very different lifestyles, knowing there are multiple ways you could be happy...Clare explains that Broken Country used to be a very different book, and she almost abandoned it entirely, so what can we l...
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“Don’t talk to yourself like that!” Teddy Swims on learning self-compassion
Monday, 31 March 2025
We change all the time, which means self-love is an ongoing practice; we’re constantly learning to love the person we are today. Musician Teddy Swims wants you to be able to look in the mirror and see what a great person you are every day.In this chat with Fearne, Teddy explains why he and his partner chose to go to couples therapy to help them prepare to become parents, as well as the incredible impact having an emotionally articulate father had on his ability to process his own big feelings. Fearne and Teddy both see music, art, writing, and creativity in general as cathartic outlets for ...
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Feel the fear and make the change: Live from Tatton Festival
Friday, 28 March 2025
Has fear ever stopped you from making the changes you want to make in life? Even if you know what you want, how do you turn your big goals into manageable daily habits? And what role does mindset play in enacting real change? The Happy Place Festival Talk Stage hosted loads of speakers across the weekend at Tatton Park last summer, who all explored these questions, and Fearne wants to bring you in on the Festival magic! In this episode you’ll hear from: -Dr Rangan Chatterjee on making transformative change that lasts, and learning to listen to your own gut instinct to create the life that w...
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Will Poulter on OCD and intrusive thoughts: “It’s never easy but it gets easier!”
Monday, 24 March 2025
Coping with mental health conditions is never easy, but it does get easier; that’s what actor Will Poulter has learnt through his own experiences with OCD, anxiety, and intrusive thoughts. In this chat with Fearne, Will explains how OCD has manifested for him ever since he was a young kid. He also talks through why finding reasons to be grateful for the lessons mental health conditions have taught you can be helpful. If you’re honest with yourself... would you give yourself or others more grace if they had to take time off work because they’d broken their leg, as opposed to because their me...
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Louise Redknapp: “I don’t feel good enough” Coping with loneliness and low self-esteem
Monday, 17 March 2025
Is it a compliment to be called ‘nice’? Singer Louise Redknapp isn’t so sure. She’s always been the good girl, but she’s ready to embrace – and express – different facets of her character now. In this chat with Fearne, Louise explains that being in a 90s girlband, and being married to a sports star, forced her to be shiny and polished at all times. That led to a crippling fear about saying or doing the wrong thing, but she’s learning to trust her own gut instinct. Fearne and Louise chat about how never knowing her dad, and becoming a mother herself, have impacted her confidence and identity...
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Julian Clary on easing anxiety: “I just forgot to have a panic attack!”
Monday, 10 March 2025
Can laughter ease anxiety? Comedian Julian Clary certainly thinks so. After living through some incredibly dark events and anxious times, he’s decided to choose to laugh and think positive thoughts. In this chat with Fearne, Julian talks about feeling naturally happier and more comfortable in his skin as he got older. Most things, he says, just aren’t as important as you think they are, and that’s a freeing realisation. Julian also explains why he’s embraced causing outrage and even offence. Fearne and Julian share how they’ve each combatted poor sleep, and the sleeping aids, medications, a...
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Book Club Meets: The mess of motherhood, with Holly Bourne
Friday, 7 March 2025
Nicki, Lauren, Charlotte and Steffi have been friends since university. Now in their thirties, life is pulling them in different directions - but the girls are reunited when Charlotte organises the baby shower from hell for pregnant Nicki.Tensions are high as these women are forced to confront their own and eachother’s views about motherhood... while also dealing with a fire at the baby shower. February’s Happy Place Book Club novel was So Thrilled for You, by Holly Bourne.In this chat, Fearne and Holly talk about how wildly the pretty Pinterest version of motherhood is from the raw, battle...
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The Dynamo mask protected me: Steven Frayne copes with Crohn’s and feeling unworthy
Monday, 3 March 2025
Dynamo brought epic magic into a lot of people’s lives, but now Steven Frayne is taking off the mask and choosing to notice the moments of magic he’s experienced around him. In particular, that’s the people – friends, family, doctors, strangers – who’ve helped him find joy again after hitting rock bottom. In this chat with Fearne, Steven talks about the devastating reality of trialling different medication for Crohn’s and the effect this has on mental health, as well as what he’s learnt from experiencing so much physical pain. Can we choose to connect over pain rather than isolating ourselv...
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Afua Hirsch: “Nobody gets to police our bodies!” How to reject beauty trends
Monday, 24 February 2025
Do you get rid of your body hair? Do you hate your periods? Are you debating a nose job? Why? Writer and broadcaster Afua Hirsch has been tracing how we’ve become so loathing of our bodies. In this chat with Fearne, Afua explains where our modern, Western notions of beauty come from, and why she’s advocating for us to celebrate how powerful our bodies are. She’s rediscovering and reclaiming rituals her ancestors will have done before Western ideals became the norm, and points out that wanting to change your facial features to conform to beauty trends will erase your ancestry. Fearne and Afu...
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Chiwetel Ejiofor: Trauma and success can coexist! Re-learning what being strong means
Monday, 17 February 2025
Are you able to balance being resilient with being vulnerable? Actor Chiwetel Ejiofor has spent time figuring out when to keep moving forward, and when to let painful emotions wash over him. In this chat with Fearne, Chiwetel reflects on how a childhood trauma has shaped his character – everything from his fierce ambition to his optimistic outlook. He also reveals the moments self-doubt has almost proved insurmountable (including when he first got the script for 12 Years A Slave...!) Plus, is ‘acceptance’ of your past ever truly possible, or is the simple realisation that life WILL go on re...
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