Happy Place

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 a...

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. &nb...

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 co...

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...

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 d...

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 t...

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. Ho...

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-facete...

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 sho...

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...

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....

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...

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...

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 Da...

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 thi...

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...

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 al...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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. F...