S2 #08 'Don't Let It Break You Honey'; An Interview with Jenny Evans

Jenny Evans is a Mother, investigative journalist and filmmaker. Following the investigation that became her memoir, ‘Don’t Let It Break You, Honey’ she retrained in law. Jenny has just secured her first legal position.

I connected with Jenny on Instagram after hearing about her book and I am incredibly grateful for Jenny and this powerful, moving and life-affirming conversation.

(Jenny has THE most wonderful laugh and is such brilliant and beautiful soul.)

We cover some very tender topics so please go carefully if you may be triggered and/or pay attention to the following.

TRIGGER WARNINGS:

1. we speak about sexual abuse, the justice system, Jenny's stillborn daughter
2. From 21 mins 50 secs to 22 mins 10 secs AND 23 mins to 25 mins 20 secs Jenny speaks about the death of her daughter, being stillborn
3. From 25 mins 40 secs to 31 mins 20 secs Jenny talks about unexplained infertility, IVF and the death of her daughter whilst in utero
4. From 32 mins 20 secs to 36 mins 30 secs I speak about being ostracised and sexual abuse

In this episode we speak about:

• Jenny's background, her book and why she wrote it
• the courage it took to write about what I call 'nasty people'
• speaking our truth, finding our tribe & shedding shame
• how shame is created and systems that are inherently shaming
• the death of Jenny's daughter, Lula* (please see trigger warnings above)
• navigating the grief realm and 'passive suicidality'
• the desire to have more babies — and the gaslighting of our big, primal feelings
• the process of writing the book with a lawyer and getting it published
• how the system of giving statements to the police needs to change and the horror of Jenny's story being leaked (from the police) to the press
• supportive publishers like Jemima Hunt at 'The Writers' Practice' and Emma Smith at 'Little Brown'
• why we talk and how it keeps us safe

Themes: sexual abuse, journalism, police scandal, misogyny, shame, grief, corruption

We mention Nick Davies, Evan Moloney, Maya Angelou, Richard Schwartz, Ana Forrest, Jemima Hunt and Emma Smith.

To learn more about Jenny see here on Instagram, her website, details of her book 'Don't Let It Break You, Honey', and her Substack.

At the end, I read a poem written by W.H. Auden.

Did you enjoy this episode? If so, I would really appreciate it if you could please leave a review on the platform that you listen.

For more insights and to contact me you can find me on Instagram, and/or on my website: www.lucywyldecoaching.com.