New Zealand Woman’s Weekly Issue 11, 2022

With celebrities boycotting the Golden Globes earlier this year, last week’s Screen Actors Guild Awards marked the beginning of the glitziest season in Hollywood. After being forced to hold virtual ceremonies for the past two years, there was a joyous feeling in the air as the biggest stars of film and television gathered at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica to celebrate the success of their peers. One of the most surprising wins of the night was Jessica Chastain, who beat Nicole Kidman, 54, and Kristen Stewart, 31, whom many considered to be the Oscar frontrunners, to take home the Best Actress in a Leading Role statue for her performance as American televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker. The 44-year-old Molly’s Game star was so stunned by her first SAGs win that she could barely…

Grab a cuppa and sit down for some “me time” – we have lots of stories this week that are sure to inspire you. With so much turmoil in the royal family right now, the wise Windsor women, including Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, are really stepping up. From page 6, we look at all the work they are doing that’s making a difference to so many. Elsewhere, Paddy Gower opens up about the health issues that left him feeling very low last year. He shares that he’s feeling much better thanks to donning Lycra and taking up a challenge with his pal Conrad Smith. If you’re a regular reader of the Weekly, you may remember our story with Conrad, who was raising money for the charity So They Can. Due to…

‘It’s quite mad that capable women should be regarded just as pretty faces’ The British royal family is known as The Firm for a very good reason. They’re essentially a business with a CEO – the Queen – who carries most of the responsibility but needs the backing of an efficient and dedicated team for the whole operation to run smoothly. Now, at a critical time when the boss is starting to feel the effects of her advancing years – and has been under the weather thanks to being struck by Covid – the MVPs among her “senior executives” are proving to be women who weren’t born royal but have stepped up to shoulder the load. Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Sophie, Countess of Wessex and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge have all been worth…

They may have met on a blind date arranged by a mutual friend, but Prince Harry believes he and wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex were brought together by fate to serve others and fight injustice. When he and Meghan were honoured for their work supporting racial equality, he told the US audience, “I think it’s safe to say that I come from a very different background to my incredible wife, yet our lives were brought together for a reason. We share a commitment to a life of service, a responsibility to combat injustice and a belief that the most often overlooked are the most important to listen to.” The Sussexes received an award at the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People) Image Awards for their work helping a women’s shelter…

In her long career as an actress, Dame Judi Dench has stolen the show over and over again. Now, it’s been revealed she once had an undeserved reputation as a shoplifter! The 87-year-old Oscar winner was once warned by a Marks & Spencer manager not to steal anything after comedian Tracey Ullman did a skit of her as a kleptomaniac. British funnywoman Tracey, 62, confessed last week that in 2016 she did an impersonation of a light-fingered Judi for her 2016 comedy show. In the gag, Tracey, in full Dame Judi costume, went shoplifting at her local grocery store and giggled, “Because I’m a national treasure, I can get away with anything!” Explains Tracey, “It was just fun. Then Judi Dench called me and said, ‘I’ve been having a problem in Marks &…

‘I have to admit, I used to look at people in Lycra and think they were weird!’ When beloved broadcast journalist Patrick Gower recently cycled into Taranaki’s Whangamo¯mona township alongside his good friend and former All Black Conrad Smith, onlookers cheered. The pair, along with 13 other men, had just spent five gruelling hours completing a 135km challenge to raise money for the charity So They Can, but it meant more to Paddy than their supporters realised. After a traumatic experience with two major surgeries on his left eye last year, including a failed operation, cycling was the saviour that pulled the TV star from a deep depression. “I was really down in the ditch and kind of lost all my spark. I had a first operation in February last year for a…