Rachel Johnson's Difficult Women

This week’s difficult woman is Newsnight's star booker Sam McAlister. A working class girl who’s mixed with princes and paupers, Sam has always known how to get where she needs to be. The story behind THAT Prince Andrew interview has now been turned into a blockbuster Netflix film, listen as I interview the woman behind the SCOOP

"Men get away with it because women don't want to report it" This week's difficult woman is author, producer, and screenwriter Daisy Goodwin. The brilliant mind behind Grand Designs, Victoria, and Diva, Daisy's multi-format career is impressive to say the least. Though you may be more familiar with her as the defiant voice who exposed Tory Mayoral hopeful Daniel Korski and derailed his campaign. L...

“People assume everything should be about making the adults comfortable and happy and forget about the extra risk that puts on children.” This weeks difficult women is Amanda Spielman. Former chief of Ofsted who stepped down at the end of last year amid the death of Ruth Perry. A death which has subsequently lead to a total overhaul of how we assess schools and the role Ofsted should play in that...

"The structure of marriage is a big part of maintaining the gender inequality between men and women" This week's difficult women is the Israeli leader of the opposition Merav Michaeli. Over her 12 years in Israeli politics, Merav has never struggled to make her voice heard. After recently deciding to stand down from her role as leader of the Labour party, we discussed her continued oppos...

"A barrister said I should be sectioned and left in a padded room" This week's difficult woman is Dr Charlotte Proudman, a fiercely defiant lawyer who isn't afraid to call a sexist spade a sexist spade. You will no doubt have first heard of Charlotte when she ousted a leering older colleague who had been making inappropriate comments about her linked in profile picture. A stunt that got her labell...

"I'll probably get cancelled for this!" Little needs to be said about this week's Difficult Woman, a prolific author, columnist and self-declared bitch, Jilly Cooper! Easily one of the greatest living English women, her novels have sold millions and have even caught the eye of our current prime minister... Recorded at the converted monastery in Gloucester where she resides, listen to this unashame...

"When we started this fight, we made enemies in the food industry." This week's difficult women is Tanya Laperouse, whilst you may not know her name but you will no doubt be familiar with the story that has lead to her taking on the entire food industry... and winning. In 2016, Tanya's daughter went on a holiday that would change her family's life forever... Listen to how Tanya took her own p...

"If he is extradited... he won't survive in a US prison." This Wednesday, a British high court will decide on whether or not to extradite journalist Julian Assange. His crime? Exposing alleged war crimes committed by the US in Afghanistan. This week's difficult woman is Stella Assange, a human rights activist and lawyer, who married Julian in 2022. Stella and Julian met whilst he was trapped in th...

"We have ground out these opportunities for women and its now as if we aren't entitled to them anymore" This weeks Difficult Woman is trailblazer and Swimmer Sharron Davies who lost out on gold at the Olympics to doping Russian athletes. With first hand experience of injustice in sport, Sharon has taken it upon herself to fight for biological categorisation in sport.

We all take it as given that the law will be there for you when you need it... the postmasters know its not true..." This weeks difficult woman is Baroness Newlove, the reinstated victims commissioner on a warpath to fix our justice system to SUPPORT victims rather than leave them feeling like cogs in a machine. You may well know about the tragic death of her husband, Gary Newlove, who was beaten...

"Even now I can feel her, she is right here with me in this room" This week's difficult woman is Her Grace, Emma, The Duchess of Rutland. A farmers daughter turned nobility this enterprising aristocrat has dragged Belvoir Castle into the 21st century and flung open her doors to the public. But it doesn't end there... an ardent spiritualist, Emma uses her natural gift to heal people with Reiki...

Apart from perhaps Sue Gray, I can’t think of a woman more guaranteed to send chills through the corridors of power than Pippa Crerar. The incoming new political editor of the Guardian, Crerar was born in Edinburgh in the long hot summer of 76 and attended Glasgow Academy. Her career as a political journalist is garlanded with too many prizes and awards to mention here - she picked up a handful fo...

This week’s guest is MP for Suffolk Coastal - Therese Coffey In this LBC podcast, Rachel Johnson's Difficult Women, Rachel speaks with women who had to be a pain in the backside to get where they are today. Women who take the word difficult as a compliment not an insult. And women who had to fight, resist, insist, or otherwise be badly behaved in order to get things done. Listen and subscribe now...

There really ain't nothing like DAME MAUREEN LIPMAN CBE 1999 Dame Commander of the order of the British Empire in the 2020 birthday honours for services to charity, entertainment and the arts, Mo is a zionist, royalist, actress, writer, comedian who is never out of the headlines.

The system she worked trying to expose, is what allowed those men to murder her..." This week's Difficult Woman is Daphne Caruana Galizia, a Maltese Author, Journalist, and Anti-Corruption activist who was assassinated for bringing truth to power... In her final article she wrote "Do your worst you bastards, until the only option left to you is to take out a contract on my life". Her story li...

"It's all too easy if you went to Eton, not so much if you were born on a council estate..." This week's Difficult Woman is Former MP, Former Culture Secretary, Former Nurse, and Former Businesswoman, Nadine Dorries. Though there is nothing former about this formidable woman whose new book has "spooked" Rishi Sunak into a full cabinet reshuffle! Plus, all of her thoughts on the former PM who has b...

Presenter, DJ, and mum Ashley James joins Rachel in the studio today to give us an insight into the word of 'Mumfluencing' and the criticism she faces for simply having the audacity to talk about breast feeding!

Caroline Lucas is the UK's only Green MP. A vocal and unabashed advocate for climate policy, Caroline hits out at Sunak, Starmer and even Ed Davey for their failures to address the climate crisis. 

CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains descriptions of sexual assault. Olympic Athlete and World Champion javelin thrower, Fatima Whitbread, was left for dead as a baby. It was only after a neighbour heard her crying for 3 days that she called the police who saved her life. She then spent the next 14 years of her life in a broken care sector that subjected her to physical and mental abuse. At 14 y...

From the age of 3, Rosena Alin-Khan knew she was going to be a doctor and no number of setbacks were going to stop her. From her humble beginnings in Tooting to graduating from an Ivy League university, Rosena is no stranger to standing up for herself or what she believes in. Now, Rosena champions mental health policy from within Parliament as well as continuing to work her 12 hour A&E shifts!...

Legendary foreign correspondent, Alex Crawford, joins me this week to discuss her extensive career spanning continents and decades. From being bombarded in Lybia to her recent exploration of violence in Mexico, this episode has it all! 

Retweeting a picture of Masih Alinejad can land you 10 years in prison. This "Enemy of State" has survived kidnapping attempts, assassination attempts, and campaigns of disinformation at the hands of the Iranian government. Her crime? Standing up for women's rights. Women's freedom fighter Masih Alinejad has been exiled from her home land since 2009 for criticising the Iranian government's stance...

Sometimes a woman is SO difficult that her story simply cannot be contained in one episode! Listen in as the queen of hot takes gives her verdict on vegetarians, stonewall, and barbie!

In 2020 Stephen Bear posted online an intimate video of himself and Georgia Harrison that had been filmed without her consent. What followed was a difficult legal battle which left her at the mercy of public opinion. Georgia's decision to waive her right to anonymity wasn't easy but the brave choice she made has allowed her to advocate for real legislative change that grants greater protection for...

Witty and outspoken, Shazia Mirza was the first British female Muslim stand-up comedian. Proudly cancelled on multiple counts she isn't afraid to say the unspoken! Listen to one of Rachels most outrageous guests yet...