Love Life with Matthew Hussey - 298: Dating After Divorce, Addiction, and Choosing the Right Love w/ Laurie Woolever

Episode Date: May 28, 2025

In this powerful and deeply human conversation, Matthew sits down with Laurie Woolever—author of Care and Feeding: A Memoir—to explore the journey of reclaiming one’s voice after years of living in the shadow of larger-than-life figures like Anthony Bourdain and Mario Batali. Topics covered: Why Laurie finally chose to write her memoir after decades in food media. What it's like to stop headlining other people’s lives and start showing up in your own. Her path through addiction, shame, and sobriety—and how it shaped her. The emotional toll and moral complexity of writing honestly about people she’s loved. The collapse of a marriage and the ripple effects of one deeply vulnerable moment. Infidelity, accountability, and what radical self-acceptance really looks like. Why “nice but boring” often hides deeper emotional safety—and how to spot a mature relationship. Dating in your 40s and beyond. What “playing the tape forward” teaches us about addiction, impulse, and the allure of red flags. Advice for people stuck in toxic attraction loops or mourning heartbreak they fear they’ll never get over. Whether you’re grappling with heartbreak, questioning your worth, or trying to navigate the messy terrain of self-reinvention, this episode will feel like a conversation with someone who’s lived it and survived to tell the truth.   🔗 Links  Buy the book - Care and Feeding: A Memoir by Laurie Woolever  🎥 Watch our Dating Made Simple Replay (available until midnight on Friday, May 30): LoveLifeReplay.com 💬 Try Matthew AI and ask your first questions for free: AskMH.com  🎟️ Join us at the Miami Retreat (October 18-19): MHRetreat.com 💞 Become a Love Life Member and join future live events: JoinLoveLife.com

And it was a little bit of a delusion. I mean, to me, being comfortable and being safe meant this sort of false idea that he thinks I'm perfect. He doesn't see any of my flaws. You know, he sees me through, he sees me the way that I wish I could see myself. Laurie, hello and welcome. Hello. Thank you for having me. It's lovely to have you here. I have been excited about this conversation. I feel like I'm fascinated with all of the worlds that you've operated in and this memoir, of course, Care and Feeding,

that has just come out. I would love to, I suppose, start with what made you decide, I want to write this now, because you've been living in the world of food and publishing for a very long time and worked among some really prominent people who I'm sure we'll talk about. What made you decide I'm going to write this memoir now? you decide I'm going to write this memoir now? Well, I had finished two books in 2021, put them both out in 2021 and the decks were sort of cleared for me and both of those books were about or with the late Anthony Bourdain and so I had some traction in the publishing space and I had some momentum and I had always wanted to do something with all of these stories I accumulated over

You know a decade and two two and a half decades in the in and around the food world in the media world I had recently gotten sober My life had changed in a lot of ways and I felt like this was the time to Try and tell these stories. I wasn't sure if I would do a memoir or perhaps auto fiction or a collection of essays. And, you know, the more I kind of thought about it and bounced ideas around with some people, that memoir just seemed like the most natural form to tell this story of my adult working life for about 25 years and For for people who haven't read it yet, and I have been really really enjoying the book the first

part of the book centers on you in your 20s and going to work with Mario Batali Prominent chef who I I'm curious to know, you know, from what I've read a huge motivation here was having worked with really these two huge male figures in Mario Batali and then Anthony Bourdain to actually start voicing or having that voice come to the foreground for yourself as opposed to,

you know, living in this way where they're always front and center and you're somehow in the mix. Could you talk about that a little bit? Because I know so many people in our audience will feel like throughout their lives, they have, they've not been headlining in their own life. And maybe they're now entering into a new era, it might be professionally,

but it might also be personally that they're coming out of a divorce where they always felt like they took a backseat to the person they were with, their life was never really about them, or they didn't feel like they had a voice in the way that they do today. I just love to hear about that transition. Yeah, so I worked with these two very big names to two very powerful and popular men

in this sphere. And for different reasons and in different ways, neither one of them are around anymore. Tony took his life in 2018 and Mario as a consequence of his behavior and actions was, I hate the term canceled, but he was canceled and he's no longer kind of an active businessman and media person. And it's quite clear to me that if those two things hadn't happened, this book would be a very different book, or maybe there wouldn't be a book at all, because of the power that they had. And I was Tony Bourdain's assistant when he died. And I think if he were still around,

I would be doing something big and creative, but it would be in his shadow still. And that would be great, you know? I wish he were still around. I wish I were doing something supporting him in his life, but that's not the way that things happened. And that's just the reality of it. So this was the choice that I made was to tell my own story, something that I

had felt that was not really available to me. Because, of course, you want to sort of hold the secrets or hold the privacy and respect the person that you're working for. And so whatever is going on behind the scenes is not really for public consumption. But I do wanna be clear, this book is not a salacious sort of tell all, you know, let me spill all the dirty secrets of my bosses.

It's truly just my experience. I think there are lots of people, like you said, people in relationships or people in professional situations that for whatever reason don't feel that they have the right to tell their stories apart from maybe a small handful of very trusted people. But I think there's there's so much more that's going on under the surface that and those to me those are the really interesting stories, what goes on behind the scenes, what life is like for the people that aren't the big marquee names or aren't the person that gets the most attention. So you know my marriage also ended, a spoiler for you and for the reader, but

you know I have a marriage in this in the book and then it ends and that really changed my life as well and that also kind of freed me up to tell, to talk about my feelings within the marriage and talk about my feelings about the marriage ending. And I think if I were still married, if I had been happily married, again, this would be a very different book. Was it? I'm so curious because I so struggle in my own life with a constant sense of obligation to people in my life and you know a feeling of betrayal if I talk about people or if I write about people and I know I think I once

heard Anne Lamott say if people didn't want you to write about them they should have behaved better I once heard Anne Lamott say, if people didn't want you to write about them, they should have behaved better. Which is pretty funny, but I've always struggled with that. I'm curious from your perspective, and obviously you kind of alluded to this idea that partly because Tony is no longer here, and because I suppose so much happened

with Mario Petettale's reputation anyway, that it created space for you to maybe do that more easily. But what is it, do you struggle with any of those feelings or have you? Absolutely, yeah. It was the biggest question, the biggest, it was the biggest reason why for a long time

I didn't feel that I could ever write the story that I wanted to write. Because of those people, also because of my family, my mother was, I think always really wanted to know more about my life. And I was always extremely reluctant to share with her, just because I thought it would upset her, she would judge me, she would feel maybe

that she had failed somehow because I was putting myself in tough situations. And so she my mother died in 2021. And that really freed me up to write in a really honest way about my life. The best advice that I found when I started this process was from Mary Carr, who wrote she's she's a wonderful memoirist. She wrote a craft, basically a craft manual called The Art of Memoir. And it covers, you know, all aspects of engaging in this process. But the one that really, really stuck with me and I went back to again and again was how to write about people in your life with respect, with kindness, how to do it honestly. life with respect, with kindness, how to do it honestly.

And the big takeaways are, you need to hold yourself as accountable as everyone else. And it's, depending on the relationship, you should offer people the opportunity to look in advance what you've written about them, to read what you've written about them and offer some feedback. And there's no promises that you're going to change things. Your story is your story. But just to, if there are people that you think

may be affected by what you're writing, to give them a chance to give it a once over. So I did that in some cases. And in some cases I didn't. With Mario Batali, certainly I didn't feel any obligation to say, to let him have approval. I don't have you know, with Mario Batali, certainly, I didn't feel any obligation to say, you know, to let him have approval. I don't have any contact with him. And, you know, a lot of his behavior is a matter of public record. The most important thing, again, from Mary Carr, and I think this

is true, you know, just generally in writing this way, it's that it has to, it has to be your point of view. So my point of view, my firsthand experiences, the things that I saw, that I felt, that I remembered, and really kind of leaving behind hearsay and conjecture. And then, of course, the publisher has a very vested interest in not being sued. So there's a very robust legal read that goes on in this case. So yeah, I was concerned, you know,

my father is still alive, I was concerned about him reading it. He has decided not to read it, although he is extremely supportive and has purchased about 10 copies and couldn't be happier for me, but doesn't feel that he needs to know about all the sort of things I put myself through.

My son, who's now 16, I've been concerned about him. He couldn't be less interested in reading it, which I think is great and very appropriate. And my ex-husband, and I gave him a copy ahead of time and he hasn't said anything about it. So I don't know if he's read it or not, but I wanted him to have a heads up on that I was gonna be writing about our marriage.

So many people carry so much shame about their own pasts and you know that shame for a lot of people never really leaves them. There's a constant fear of, well if you really knew this about me then you would look at me differently. I think a lot of people feel that when they get into new relationships like there's parts of me I want you to know and there's parts of me I don't want you to know. There's an incredible level of vulnerability in this book. You know, to read the first 100 pages is to read of, you know, sexual exploits and drugs and all sorts of situations that so many people

have been through in one way or another, but very few people feel vulnerable, they can be vulnerable enough to actually share and talk about. And I'm curious if for you that vulnerability felt like a huge and scary leap and still causes anxiety or whether there was a level

of self acceptance that you had achieved by this point in life or by the time you started writing it that actually made that not so scary. Yeah, I don't, it's surprising because there is, there are lots of, you know, embarrassing things that I put myself through and that I did. And I think, you know, I have a good sense of humor, I think. So I think, you know, a lot of it now, it was so long ago,

and I have a lot of tenderness toward that young person that I was. And so I think it's most of it is more funny than truly shocking or shameful to me. But yeah, I mean, shame has been a big part of my sort of my mental makeup for a long time. I was raised Catholic and you know, there was just a lot, there was a lot of shame around sex and there was a lot of shame around using drugs and drinking, but I did it anyway. And I think maybe I did it because it was shameful. But the act of writing it down and of sharing the story somehow has sealed it off for me in a way that I don't feel ashamed of it anymore. I don't feel that it is too much. I know that there's some very personal stuff that's in print that's out in the world that people know about me now.

But somehow it is separate from me, which I didn't expect. What is that? Like, how does that happen? I'm curious, because I know what you mean, because in the beginning of, you know, when I think of the original book I wrote back in 2013, there's something very, there's something much more sort of didactic

about that book, whereas my new book, while I suppose still didactic in nature, is that it opens with me talking about how dispelling any myths about the idea that I was a great guy to date back when I was single, because I felt that that was a kind of a lie, that I allowed people to believe and you know, it's not that I went around telling everyone I was so awesome all the time, but I think people assumed because of the work that I do,

he must have been a great guy to date and I knew better. And I sort of in a way wanted to clear the air on that in the latest book and be like, I don't want to have been put on any kind of pedestal here. This is the reality. I'm not better than everybody else. And it, there was a kind of release or a relief in doing that. And I do understand what you mean by sealed off, but I'm, yeah, I'm curious

what you mean by that and also how you learned to develop a kind of tenderness towards that, those past versions of you, because that's something a lot of people struggle to get to. Well, therapy certainly helps. And sobriety, you know, that's my sort of personal cocktail of approaches to sort of being kinder to myself. I think having a child now, and I mean, he's a teenager, and just seeing his humanity and his impulses

and his behavior and different decision-making, and I can remember what it was like to be that age, and I know that he's going to move on into his 20s, and he's gonna be in similar situations, and I have such a tenderness toward him because he's my child, and I'm somehow able to sort of retroactively apply that to the memory of my lost and sad and vulnerable self. Yeah, it is very surprising.

I don't really know. I think there is also some measure of kind of self protection and boundary setting that I had terrible boundaries when I was younger. And I thought that everything was my business and everything everyone thought about me was my business. And I had to sort of control it in a way that, of course, you just, you can't have that level of control, right? And so now that I'm older and I'm sober

and I've had decades of therapy, I understand that I don't need to go looking for everyone's reaction to this book. I'm sure that there are, you know, if people are paying attention, if people are talking about the book, I'm sure there are some people that don't like it or think it's too much or think that it's an overshare or think

I'm a terrible person for some of the things that I did. I've had this wonderful gift in recovery, of an alcohol recovery, to be told and to know that it's none of my business, actually, what people think about me. My loved ones, of course, I want to nurture those relationships and make sure that people feel good about me.

But the larger public in the world, because it's actually not about me. If I don't know you and you've got an opinion about me based on my book, like that's about you, you know, and hopefully more people like the book than don't. But so that goes a long way toward being able to have empathy and sympathy for myself and not feel overexposed because I'm not letting in, every single reaction that people might have to the drinking, the adultery, the drugs, the lie, all of the things that I, I'm not proud of any of that.

I don't think I did a great thing behaving that way, but I can't change it. It is part of who I am. So some, some version of radical acceptance. And do you feel that who you are today and the things you're proud of about yourself today could have been achieved without those things along the way, those mistakes or regrets or any of that?

Probably not. You know, I think it was just fundamental to who I was, that I wanted to find out what it felt like to XYZ. I wanted to follow through. If there, I mean, and I'm not saying it was great. I think it led me down a lot of dark paths, but if there was a temptation, I had a really hard time saying no to it because I thought I'm really going to regret if I don't see what it feels like to do this thing. So yeah, I also, you know, I think I can hold sort of two truths about it. I can also say, gosh, I wasted a lot of time, you know, and I hurt some people. I primarily hurt my ex-husband and I, you know, I probably could have been more professionally productive or any number of things. So I might have gotten to the same place,

but there's only one time, there's only one timeline of reality, you know, and it's the one that I'm in where it took me a long time to get sober. It took me a long time to figure out how to live in a way where I'm not self-destructive. And, you know, I'm grateful. I have the stories, I have the bruises, I have the experience. I feel like my life is richer for having made a bunch of mistakes and living through it.

Do you think that you can teach someone to get there sooner from the outside, you know, because one of the parts in the book I was enjoying was when you were talking about, you know, the, there was such something so seductive about the world that you had entered into with Mario Batali and being surrounded by charismatic, sparkling people and food and you know, booze and all of these experiences that especially in your twenties, you know, they are wildly seductive and it's a sort of, in a way it's a dangerous environment for anyone to be in. I was 25 when I came to America and I came for a very big TV show at the time that was on NBC in a prime slot aired after The Voice and that show failed but I look

back now and I'm like thank God it failed because this was the kind of show that if it had succeeded, my notoriety would have exploded. And at 25, given everything I know about all the mistakes I made in my 20s anyway, it would have been really, really dangerous for me to have been that big at that time. So I suppose I'm sort of curious because when I'm working with people in their love lives, so much of what I end up dealing with is people who are attracted to shiny things and then end up getting hurt because they're attracted to shiny things.

Do you think that you can help someone get there quicker instead of constantly being dragged back to these things that are incredibly alluring, but then actually end up being the hot stove that really hurts us. Yeah, that's wow, that's a sort of a tall order, I guess. You know, if someone is prone to addiction, I think it's that's, that's its own sort of set of problems, right? That's its own, because there's, what needs to happen is there needs to be, the cycle needs to be broken, right? Because if you're prone to addiction, it's drugs and alcohol or food or sex or money

or notoriety, validation, whatever it is, if you're not breaking that cycle, there's always, you're always just gonna be transferring your addictive tendencies to the next shiny thing. But that's not everyone. I mean, there's many, many people who can live in a more moderate way. I think that having some way to pursue and develop

like an internal sense of validation, And that is something that I was struggling with and chasing for a very long time was feeling good enough about myself as a person to not be constantly chasing the thrill. And it took me a long time. I didn't have great self esteem. And I just didn't, just didn't know how to be comfortable with myself. So when you say, can you draw that line for me between not feeling good enough or not feeling an internal sense of worth and chasing the thrill? Because of course chasing the thrill can also just sort of feel good on its face. Yeah. Right.

Yeah. But what links it to self-esteem for you? For me personally, I think my understanding of what made me valuable was what I could accumulate or who I could align myself with or what I could attract to myself that would somehow I thought reflect to the world who I was inside. I remember being young like elementary school, middle school and the only important thing for a girl to do in my estimation was to have a boyfriend. It was just about do you have a boyfriend and if you don't what's wrong with you and I never really had a boyfriend until high school,

but he wasn't the right kind of boyfriend. You know, it's, and I know it's, some of it's the culture and some of it's just my own internal whatever logic. So I think I carried that into my adulthood where it was- Sorry to interrupt you. No, it's fine. What made him not the right kind of boyfriend at the time?

Was it not cool enough? He wasn't part of the in-club? Yeah, he was, I mean, I thought he was fantastic. I mean, I was head over heels and it was great. But in terms of like whatever in-crowd I was hoping to impress, you know, he was in the music department. He was older.

He was sort of, you know, he was the first guy I ever knew who was on lithium. You know, he was quite depressed and to me, which again, I found that very sexy, but I think in terms of like a mainstream sort of acceptance is like, wait, this guy's on lithium? So yeah, as much as I got a lot out of that relationship, I knew that it didn't like raise my social worth.

And it sounds so callous and crass to talk about these things in this way, but that was sort of, that was what it was. So I definitely carried that into my young adulthood. Like my value will be raised if I can get a boyfriend. And barring that, which then I felt like I don't think I can get a boyfriend. I don't know that I'm worthy. I don't know that anybody wants to be with me.

So what I can do is have a lot of sex and have a lot of flings and have a lot of adventures that I can talk about. I can make them into funny stories and maybe that'll be my thing. And that'll be my worth is sort of I'm wild or I'm funny, interesting, I'm good at parties. And did it feel like that will be my worth is sort of I'm wild or I'm funny, interesting, I'm good at parties. And did it feel like that would be my worth with men and

women or just among women? Gosh, yeah these are things I haven't really thought about too much. I think both, you know, and I don't know that I really gave a lot of thought to it with the men piece because I do know that, you know, objectively in our culture, you culture, the more partners a woman has, at least this was the case in the late 90s and early 2000s when I was young, that's this sort of thing, the stigma of being slutty, right? So the more partners you have,

the less somebody wants to be with you in theory. And again, it's kind of reductive. It's kind of talking about the whole thing as sort of a marketplace, but it is in a way, dating is a marketplace, I guess. Yeah, I just thought, well, if I can't have true love and I'm not sure that I can, at least I can have these experiences that are gonna make me really interesting.

For you, the idea that you can't have true love, did that wear off at a certain point or was there a point where you felt a shift or is it something that's always been a continual kind of belief system that's been a challenge? It doesn't, it has worn off. I think I have true love now, I'm very happy know, I'm much older than I was at the time. I think I I kept finding myself frustrated and not with the right people and you know liking someone who didn't like me back enough and

mistaking sex for love Mistaking a fling for a commitment. And I didn't ever really examine, if there were patterns, I wasn't able to really examine what those patterns were or what it was that I, you know, the things that I kept running toward that were obviously not working for me. I just thought, well, there's something defective about me that I won't be able to find true love. And I can see now that that was born of, you know, a certain immaturity. I think there is a lack of emotional development that happens. If you're drinking, if you're binge drinking all the time, if you're using drugs, if you're acting in an addictive way, and again, this is not for everyone, but this was my experience, that you,

your emotional development kind of stops, you know? so I was just sort of stuck and and not not really understanding that I was the one that was kind of standing in the way of actually having true love at some point when I got out of the restaurant business for a while and I met someone who was not in the business and that you know very lovely stable man who wanted to be in a monogamous relationship, I thought, okay, well, this is it. All I had to do was change industries to find someone who was suitable. And I ended up marrying him.

And I ended up being not very happy with that. I think I was so desperate to be settled and to have, and to, you know, just to be off the market and to have this person loved me, wanted to marry me. Great. That's enough. We're going to, it's going to work. And it didn't. Guys, quick public service announcement before you continue with the video.

My big online event that I did last week called Dating Made Simple is only available until Friday at midnight. I know tons of you have been intending to watch it but you still haven't. 50,000 people have now come through this live masterclass I did. If you're looking for love you can't miss this. It will be the most important 90 minutes you spend this year. It was actually about an hour and 45 minutes. Lovelifereplay.com is the link. Go watch it. Make time and watch it till the end. I designed this to be like a movie. It tells a story and it all makes sense by the end. Again, that is only available until Friday at midnight. It's free.

I just want to make sure you don't miss it. Okay? Lovelifereplay. calm. I'll see you over there All right back to the video What what was it in that relationship that because you know that it's really interesting to me that you know, we When the pendulum swings the other way and we go ah, this feels like exactly the medicine I need. I have someone who's stable and someone who actually wants to be with me and wants to be exclusive and all these things that I haven't had over here,

it can feel like just what we need. And it's a pretty scary thing when that doesn't work for us. And we feel, you know, so kind of even more panicking to be in that situation. Was it that you didn't feel the chemistry that you had always wanted to feel? What stopped it being the complete picture? There was a moment, such a funny, stupid moment

where I, and I'm not saying this is like the whole downfall of the marriage, but this is where it started to unravel for me was about a year in, I had felt very, very comfortable being intimate with my ex-husband and really had fun with that. And then, but I also had a lot of body shame. And at one point I said to him, do you think I'm overweight?

I was drunk and I just, I don't know why I said it. And he, you know, very honest. He said, yeah, but I don't mind. And it was like, wait, what? You think I'm overweight? And like, you know, he was right, I was. But he didn't care. But somehow I wanted him to lie to me and say,

no, you're perfect, you're beautiful. And my ego was so fragile that that was enough to sort of send me into a tailspin. And I really shut down. And I found it really hard to be comfortable with him in intimate situations. It took me a very long time to get to come back around. I never kind of never really did. And I you know, it's so dumb.

And you know, I talked to my therapist about it endlessly. And you know,, he apologized and you know, if he could have taken that back, he would. I think that things would have gone off the rails anyway because I think there was just a fundamental lack of compatibility, even though I think, you know, when you're with somebody at first and you're young and you're so relieved and it's fun and the sex is good and it's, you know, you think that things are always gonna be this way you know I wasn't thinking about the ways in which we were not compatible but that was the moment for me where I really started to struggle and I thought well gosh if our sex life is not you know what it was when we first got together like what's the rest of our lives gonna

look like you know and I really really, I tried to overcome it. You know, we did go to a little bit of couples therapy and we just kind of never were the same after that. And then, you know, you throw in marriage, you throw in having a child. And I just thought, are we gonna be together like this for the rest of our lives? And I'm really dissatisfied or really just there were whatever it was about our

intimacy that had just changed in a way that felt irreparably broken. And I felt horribly guilty. And I just, you know, very, very frustrated and unable to really put voice to what I was feeling. It was just years and years of that of bad communication, of guilt compounded with anxiety, compounded with fear, compounded with you know not really having the language to say what I was feeling and fear of hurting him. And the way that I dealt with it eventually was to step out of my marriage and seek pleasure elsewhere.

What was the difference, you know, in the book you talk about there's men that you were with in your 20s that, you know, had just warning signs written all over them and, you know, there's some quite painful kind of things to read where it's just so clear that people were not treating you right and was in some cases saying horrible things and saying mean things and so like, but during that time of your life, it didn't, those weren't things that pushed you away. They were, it was almost like, you know, those would go over your head and you would keep going. What, what do you think had changed in your life that, you know, something that maybe,

and correct me if I'm wrong, but it almost sounds like something that if it was said during that chapter of your life, it wouldn't have been the thing that had such a profound effect while you were kind of chasing something, but you had something and then someone said that, your ex said that and it was profoundly fracturing. What do you think the difference was? The difference I think was that I felt, I had felt very comfortable and safe in that relationship with my now ex-husband. I had felt like, and it was a little bit of a delusion, I mean to me being

comfortable and being safe meant this sort of false idea that he thinks I'm perfect, he doesn't see any of my flaws, you know, he sees me through, he sees me the way that I wish I could see myself, I think. You know, it was, and I felt like I had let my guard down and I felt like, and my conception, and it sounds crazy as I'm saying it, but my conception of like what a perfect relationship was, was that was like, he thinks I'm beautiful and perfect and sexy and he thinks I'm thin, you know?

And why that was important to me, I don't really know. And I had, you I had already invested whatever, nine months a year, we were living together, we had met each other's families. And so it was much more hurtful to have him shatter my delusion. Whereas I don't think with any of the men that I was sort of casually involved with who were sort of clearly not right, big red flags, I don't think I had let myself be that vulnerable with them. You know, I knew it was like, well, I know this guy is kind of a jerk, but I that's part of the appeal, you know, and I, I would never ask him his opinion about my body, you

know, because it doesn't matter. Um, and shouldn't have mattered anyway to, you know, with my in my relationship with my ex-husband, but for whatever reason in that moment it did. Yeah, I just think that's really so human and so fascinating that, you know, that the person who we then actually feel like we can show up as ourselves with, there is that feeling of, well, they don't even think of things this way, they don't even see these things. So I can really understand that. When you did step out of your marriage

and when you were with other people, were you able to forgive yourself for that infidelity and what did that look like? Because I think so many people, you know, so many people I work with feel like on some level, you know, when they feel like they're the one to have sabotaged the relationship in whatever way, sometimes it's they cheated, sometimes it's they were too anxious in the relationship,

sometimes it's they were too controlling and they pushed someone away or too jealous. People can spend a really long time beating themselves up for those things. What was, what did your process look like for forgiving yourself? Well, I think I'm still kind of in it. I mean, I understand what my motivations were, and I understand myself, and I know exactly how I got to that place. And the thing that I sort of struggle to forgive myself for is that that is the way that I was know, that I was unhappy in my marriage

and I went about it in that way, in this very underhanded way. And you know, there was a lot of lying and a lot of time wasted, you know? And that is the thing that is harder for me to sort of forgive myself for than the actual act of cheating. You know, it's not great.

I know that I caused pain, but I think the thing that really cut me the most was when my ex-husband and I were splitting up, he said, we've been together for 16 years. You have wasted 16 years of my life. I could have had a completely different life. I can't, and that was like, there were many, I mean,

arguably we could have addressed our issues before we got married, was like, there were many, I mean, you know, arguably, we could have addressed our issues before we got married, you know, or at any point. And I the thing that I regret more than the physical act of cheating is sort of the cowardice with which I, I approached the whole endeavor of trying to figure out, you know, how to how to either make the marriage work or end the marriage. You know, I don't sit around beating myself up about it. I feel like, again, the work that I've done in sobriety

has really been helpful to sort of understand myself and understand the world a little bit better. And that's not universal advice because not everyone is an addict. But somehow knowing how common it is, knowing how common it is that people cheat on partners, there's some comfort I take in that and I don't know that that's really the most ethical approach to it. But anytime there's a bad decision made or something that I've done that's not great or

a mistake I've made I do find a lot of comfort in knowing that well it's it's extremely common you know it's a mistake that a lot of people have made. I do too I think I think the same way in my own life about things I regret is that you there, when you realize how human these things are, and also that there are people that go through their whole lives never being able to put eyes on themselves in these areas. I mean, a lot of us, you know, know someone, I think one of the reasons that the, there's so much literature and so many videos on narcissism these days is because the most painful thing is dealing with someone who has no self awareness in that way and never takes accountability and goes their whole

lives harming people all the way to the grave and to you know I I think there is something to be proud of for anybody who can own something and say, God, I wouldn't do that again. You know, and I understand what I did and how I hurt someone. I think that's a, there's, to me, there's something incredibly cathartic about that. And it's a catharsis that actually not all of us are offered by someone who's hurt us. How many people have parents who, you know, really like affected their lives in awful, awful ways and they'll never get that catharsis with that person. That parent's never going to turn around

and say, I can see all the things I did or I can see the patterns that hurt you and I'm so sorry for them and I would take them back if I could But you know what in these last few years of life, I'm gonna change most people never get that Yeah, you know, I haven't I said I'm sorry a lot to my ex-husband in the in the sort of the heat of our are splitting up And at some point he said I don't want to hear it, you know I don't believe it and it doesn't mean anything to me for you to say I'm sorry and so I I stopped You know because I thought okay. And so I stopped, you know, because I thought,

okay, well, I'm gonna listen to him. When I gave him a copy of the book, an advance copy, I did write a note and say, you know, I am sorry for those things. I do still feel like there's probably a conversation to be had, a person to person conversation. I'm not dying to have it, but it's been seven years now. We very happily co-parent our son.

We can really cooperate on that. And we've been able to even like ride in the car together, for 30 minutes at a time and have really nice small talk and catch up on each other's lives. And so that's really something I never, a place I'd never thought we'd be at. Um, so I do feel like at some point in the probably near term, there'll be a conversation where I kind of, you know, with all of this time and perspective can really just say, listen, I, I am sorry.

Do you miss, do you ever miss the highs of like your past lives and does, I'm curious if fundamentally you just feel like your wiring has changed to where the world you live in today and the, you know, the things that you do to operate today just feel rewarding and nourishing and peaceful in ways that supersede any of that. Or whether there is a sense of like, God, life feels a bit boring compared to all of that. I do think my I mean, I, yeah, I guess my wiring has changed in

a sort of metaphorical sense, I can find a lot of pleasure in things that I think I used to find quite boring. And do I miss? You know, I think writing this book and reliving and documenting some of the sort of, you know, the highlights of my, you know, years of acting out and seeking thrill and adventure. That was kind of enough. You know, I know that I lived those things. I can remember the feeling, you know, the sort of the moments that the peak moments of some transgression. And I understand and recognize that those were feelings that I that I really enjoyed.

But I've done enough of them now and that I can see the other side. I know that for every sort of illicit sexual encounter I had that felt really great in the moment, there were weeks of feeling really pretty terrible afterwards. Or you know, whatever it was, a drunk night out or, you know, a little bit of Coke or whatever it was. You know, I there's something that people say in recovery and alcohol, 12 step programs, you know, play, play the whole tape, play the tape forward. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, you have the drink and then what happens, you know, the whole thing.

So I can see the whole part of it now. So I don't miss that because I know what comes after the thrill. Could you just, for those people that aren't familiar with that line, could you just describe what that line is meant to conjure? It means, you know, say you really feel like, oh God, I really just wanna go have a drink,

you know, as an example. So, you know, someone will say, OK, we'll play the tape for her. What happens next? You go and have the drink. Do you just have one? And in my case, no. I know that the way alcohol makes me feel that my engine has started.

And even if I said I was just going to have one, there's no way that's happening. I have another one, and then I have another one, and then maybe I do some drugs, and then maybe I start texting someone that I shouldn't be texting. And it's the whole thing starts to roll downhill and the tape, you play the whole tape

and then I'm vomiting or then I'm crying and then I'm having to apologize to somebody for something I did or said. And I don't wanna watch that show anymore. I've seen it, It's got quite boring. So I really do, I think I was so afraid of being bored before. And now I see how much more interesting things are

when I'm actually clear headed enough to see them. You know, and I'm in a relationship going on four years and you know, the most thrilling thing is that we will sit in a room together and read a book. We'll each read our own book, or watch a show, or take his dog for a walk, or whatever it is, really simple things. And I would hear people talk like this

when I was still drinking and using and acting out sexually. And I'd just be like, yeah, whatever, great. That's not for me. You know, I didn't believe that I could be as fulfilled by really simple living. And and you know, I very surprised and very pleased to know that I you know, I can find happiness in this kind of quieter, simpler life. What would you say to a younger version of yourself out there dating or even just the people watching this

who feel themselves sort of continuously magnetically drawn to the wrong things in people who see life as this constant dichotomy between someone who is exciting and just, you know, has red flags all over them and someone who is nice and boring. And they're just like, oh my God, is this really like, this is the choice that I have to make is between these two things. Anytime I seem to find someone who actually likes me and is willing to go there with me and I feel nothing and these guys over here, oh my God, you know, I can't stop thinking about them. What, you know, I like what

you said about like, appreciating the simple things in your relationship today and how it's absolutely not boring to sit next to someone and read a book together and enjoy that. Do you have any advice or anything you can share with people that you think it could help them? Where they haven't maybe made that transition yet, but they feel like their wellbeing depends on it. And if they're not careful, they're gonna stay in this cycle of people

who treat them poorly or just never commit or never actually try. I mean, for me, it was just, again, sort of getting tired of it, realizing, you know, looking at the patterns and realizing, you know, what, playing the tape forward, knowing what's gonna happen, and really asking myself, is that what I want?

Do I want to, is this little bit of thrill worth the bad feeling that I'm gonna have, the loneliness that I'm gonna feel? You know, and at some point, the answer became no. Yeah, I think it just really helps to just be very honest with yourself. In therapy for years, my therapist would say, but what do you want?

But what do you want? And I had such a hard time answering that question. And it was the most, I mean, I saw the same therapist for 20 years and that was the through line was, what do you want? And I didn't know, or I didn't feel confident enough, or I didn't feel like whatever I wanted, it was so impossible that I couldn't even really

say it out loud. And I think once I really was able to just stop and slow down and think about and say and write down what it is that I wanted, and then it just made it all so much more clear to me that, you know, what didn't want to feel vulnerable. And that was kind of it, you know? So yeah, I don't know if I'm really giving any helpful advice, but I think it's just really listening

to your true inside gut. And maybe what you want is to have, you know, exciting kinky sex with a lot of people. But and I think there's a way to do that where you're not getting hurt. You're not getting caught up in, in, you know, patterns where you're feeling hurt, where you're feeling like your wellbeing is, is, uh, you know, in jeopardy. When, when you articulated that you wanted to feel safe and loved, did someone appear after that? Or did it like, what did that look like from kind of having that realization that, oh, this is, and I, you know, this is, this matters to me. And in a way, did you at that time think, and fireworks and chemistry is less,

did you consciously say to yourself like, yes fireworks and all of that is very nice, but actually I'm consciously saying this is less important or was it, no, no, no, but that's still as important, but this is the non-negotiable that I feel loved and I feel safe. And how did that then show up in different results or did it not for a long time? No, it did.

Well, I'll tell you about this period of time where I were really clicked in for me was after my marriage, I had had another relationship or two after my marriage and those didn't work out. And then I had, you know, a friend said, go on the apps, you know, I was like, oh God, you know. But I did, you know, I wasn't, I was sort of heartbroken after the end of a relationship and I wasn't ready to get into a relationship,

but I was lonely. And I went on the apps and what I found was, the thrill and the fireworks, but in a very defined, no strings, nobody here wants to be in a relationship kind of thing. I had a hot girl summer, but I was like 48. And again, this is just my personal anecdote, but you know, my friend said, listen, there's a lot of guys that are younger that want to date women,

your age, they just they date, you know, or, you know, date, go on one date. And I did that all summer, I had a great time. And I got it out of my system. out of my system and I even the best of those dates, I knew that, okay, well that was really fun and that was really fulfilling. And I don't expect to see him again. I don't really want to. He's like, you know, he could be my son. And so I kept asking myself, well, like, well, what would I want? What would be the next thing? And it was always like, what I want is, you know, after I have, you know, a fun time with somebody, then I want to sit on the couch and watch Netflix, you know, and I want to be able to talk about things.

I want to have breakfast together. And at the end of the summer, I got it out of my system. And then I met a man who was very upfront and very clear about I Want to be in a long-term relationship I am looking for someone to be a partner and I you know I want to be monogamous and it was and the first I was like, oh, you know so you met him on the apps, yeah and Walk me through that because I know that there's gonna be people who are like

How did you find that one? Because there's so many people who don't, they're not straightforward and they, you know, love bomb you and make you feel like, you know, something's going somewhere and then they're not who they say they are at all. What did that process look like of talking to that person on the app and you, at what point did he start saying those things? Well, I took it very, very slow with him.

I think some part of me really knew that like he was worth, you know, not just sleeping with and moving on. And it is worth saying that he was in a different age category than, you know, the guys that I was just having fun with all summer were by and large quite young. And he's older than me. And so, and just reading his body language, we both were very similar in that it was like there was a reserve, you know, there was a very slow sort of getting to know you.

And I wasn't sure, I thought, I like him, I enjoy him, he's very smart, we have a lot in common, but we also have a lot of differences that make it really interesting to get to know each other. Were you immediately attracted or did that take a minute? It took a minute. And did, when you were speaking on the app, did it feel like there was

what kind of given that the attraction took a minute, what was the kind of and what was the fuel that made you go from matching with someone on an app to I'm actually going to go out with this person? Was there was it that the kind of back and forth felt consistent and that felt nice for a change? Was it that there was a kind of good banter there or he felt interesting? What propelled you forward when there wasn't, you know, these initial, oh my God, this guy's hot?

Yeah, he was and is, he was really smart and really articulate in a way that I just Really it just really resonated with me that he was funny, but not too funny You know it just said all the right things. I think we exchanged a couple of emails you know, he wanted to move to email and I was very comfortable with that and maybe that makes me sound old but You know, he didn't he didn, he didn't send a dick pic. He didn't ask for nudes. I mean, he was just very respectful and very sort of old fashioned in a way that was like unusual, you know, for, for the apps.

But it was the, it was the intelligence and the art, the way that he articulated his, his just what he was doing. Um you know I'm just doing some work and you know I'm going to talk to my daughter later. He had a daughter this has a daughter the same age as my son so that was also you know something that we had in common. Um and and he suggested right away that you know or within a you know a couple of back and forths that we that we meet and have dinner and see if we get along. And we did. But I also, yeah, I just, I could tell that he didn't,

he wasn't trying to jump into bed. Between dates, was he consistent with communication or would he disappear? No, no, he was consistent. We had a really nice consistent email conversation and that's something that I've always really loved. a really nice consistent email conversation. And that's something that I've always really loved. You know, I treat email like letter writing, and I always have.

And so, you know, to write and receive these nice long, you know, four, five, six paragraph emails every day or every other day, in which you, in that way, we were slowly revealing parts of ourselves getting to know each other asking questions telling stories that really felt very comfortable and right to me. And so we went on a bunch of dates and I think we shook hands you know I think we went on four or five dates and we would only shake hands and then I thought oh god this is you know at some point like we have to either move this forward or not, at least have a conversation about it. And so then, uh, and I'd,

unbeknownst to me, he was talking to his therapist and sort of saying, yeah, I like her, but I don't know. You know, I was really, my body language was very like, don't touch me. Um, because I just want, I wanted to be careful with him and I just wanted to proceed with caution. Um, and so then he hugged me. And then we did over email have a conversation about, well, what's going on here? Are we dating? You know, are we, it's fine if we're just gonna be,

he said, it's fine if we're just gonna be friends, but do let me know because I'm actually interested in a romantic situation. And if you're not interested, I'm gonna move on. And that sort of, of you know forced me to To address it, you know, and I said well, you know, let's maturity really mature. Yeah I mean he had also been married before and so I said well, yeah, let's let's try it You know, and then we and we sort of talked about our terms in very specific ways, you know Like what is it that you're actually looking for? What are your non-negotiables? What do you need?

You know and one of the things I said to him was, I just want to know that you're not going to disappear. I like to have consistent communication. We happen to live in two different cities. We're together a lot, but our home bases are in two different places. So I said, because of that, and even if we were in the same city, I would just want to have daily contact.

Even if it's just a text or an email, I don just want to have daily contact. You know, I want to even if it's just a text or an email, you know, I don't want to go a couple of days wondering like if I'm if I'm going to hear from you again. And that felt very vulnerable to say that, you know, that feels like am I being needy? Am I being crazy? We have just started this process. And that was great with him. And that's the way it's been. I mean, you know, we're again, we're still two different cities. We have a we have a video chat, you know, we're, again, we're still in two different cities. We have a,

we have a video chat every single day that we're not together. Um, you know, it's extremely rare. It's something that has circumstance has to come up where we just can't do it, but we, we, we see each other every day. And that's their plan for one of you to be in the same city as the other. At some point, I think so. Yeah, it's, um, you know, we have, because we have kids that we have to get them off to college, you know, he's got a job that keeps him grounded in a certain place, but he also has a place in New York where I live. So, um, yeah, I think once our lives and our children are in a place where we have more

flexibility, I think there will be a, a cohabitation. We've talked about it. So do you have any, any words of encouragement for women out there who I work with many, many women in their 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, who basically will say, I'm the, the quality of men that I'm meeting is just really, really depressing. I'm meeting a lot of men who seem to have never grown up, who have no emotional articulacy whatsoever, who are on their second or third go around and have zero interest in commitment,

because they're now just in a playground in online dating. And they just, they don't want to be back in a situation where they perceive themselves to be controlled or stuck with someone. And so they're just enjoying whatever freedom they now feel. So I speak to a lot of women who are really quite demoralized by what they perceive to be the state of dating, especially post 50. But what you're saying is very encouraging. And I'm curious if there's

just anything that you could add to that, that might restore a little faith to people out there who have become very disillusioned with the options above a certain age. Yeah. Yeah, I felt the same way. But I think they are out there. I've been very encouraged by just the conversations around therapy, around, and I guess I'm thinking about things I read, the things that I read, the men whose work I read that I really like, and the people that I see on social media who are galvanized around, you know, whatever political persuasion, I don't know,

maybe it's not the look is not maybe what you, the ideal, I mean, my boyfriend, I wouldn't have said that he was my type, but getting to know him, getting to know his heart, getting to know his mind made him very, very, I mean, I think he's objectively attractive, but he wasn't my type. Do you think people should give more time before they make those decisions about whether they're

physically attracted to someone? Or do you think people do you think people make up their mind too quickly? I think that's possible. I you know, I don't want to generalize. But but yeah, I think maybe there's there, you know, there's a list of non negotiables with with physical type. But you know, you don't know how it's going to feel to be sitting next to someone or to spend a little time. I am someone who is very attracted to intellect and sense of humor and the ability to articulate ideas And I've been in relationships with, you know, people of all different body types and different looks and, you know, different heights and all of these different things. So that has served me to not say, well, this is a non-negotiable.

You've got to have, you know, be a certain height or whatever. But that's, I understand, like the body wants what it wants. That, you know, sexual attraction is a very complicated thing. But I'll give an example. I'll talk about my sister who was on the apps. She's a little bit older than me. She's divorced. And she had a very disappointing and miserable experience.

And she ended up getting together with someone that she'd known for a long time, who had gotten divorced over the course of her knowing him. And they got to know each other through a business relationship and slowly, sort of the same as my situation, where slowly over time, they developed a friendship and then thought, well, wait, should we give it a try?

And this is like the best relationship she's ever been in. So I think- And she feels attracted. And she feels attracted, yes. And she feels comfortable and safe and they have a lot in common. Which I guess is just to say, like the apps are not the end all be all.

I think that there are people in your community, not everywhere. I mean, I know some people live in rural areas or whatever and you've got to sort of, the apps are great. I think the apps are like shopping, online shopping for something. But sometimes you gotta go to the store. I mean, this is very sort of old advice,

but I think that just keeping your eyes open to the world around you, church, 12 step groups, work, the grocery store, you know, my sister's boyfriend is somebody that she used to rent a house from. I do think, I think it can be demoralizing. And I think, I think the apps do also sometimes allow people to be their worst selves, you know, their most shallow sort of selves. Um, but I think there's a possibility that you scratch the surface and there, there,

there is something a little more there too. How long would you have given it before saying throwing in the towel and being like, okay, this guy's interesting, but I just don't feel anything sexually towards this person. At what point would you have kind of cut it off? I guess I probably, you know, if I think if I really felt, okay, I'm not attracted to him and it's going to be very difficult for me to have a physical relationship with them. That's the point I would have said, like, I can't do this, you know, because I wouldn't

put myself through bad sex or sex that I wasn't didn't enjoy just for the sake of being in a relationship. So it's almost like that distinction of it wasn't that, you know, my heart was skipping a beat when I was in front of this person to begin with, but, you know, there was a curiosity there. And okay, not my type, but enjoying being around this person and this is fun and let's see what happens. Yeah, I mean, I've also, I think I've had a lot of experiences of, oh my, you know,

I feel obsessive about this person. They're so attractive. My heart's skipping a beat. And then again, it's played the tape forward. Like, you know, in a couple of weeks I'm, you know, dejected, devastated. I've, you know, I've, I see the mask is off and I see that this is not great for me. So I don't need to do that anymore That's such a good point. I I just want to talk very very briefly about Something You know you said after Tony died or something you said in the book. There was there's a line

I'm hoping you remember it exactly, but there was a line you used about heartbreak I think it's at the cause of Tony's death was Tony a human mortal grown man Who loved and suffered so deeply that it killed him? Is that it or this is the paragraph? He was lonely and stubborn and delusional and despite all his intellect and world weariness He was a bone-deep believer in romantic old-school fucking Romeo and Juliet style love deep believer in romantic old school fucking Romeo and Juliet style love. He'd survived heroin addiction and all kinds of dangerous and terrifying shit all over the world. But in a specific moment in his extraordinary life,

he didn't have the resilience to survive the cruel and brutal end of his last great love affair. Yeah. Uh, to add to that, tell me if I'm quoting you wrong here, but he had somehow made the colossally stupid, but somehow wholly plausible decision to die of a broken heart. Heartbreak is devastating for so many people. And there will no doubt be people listening to this who are right in the eye of the storm with a heartbreak they're going through. What would be your advice to them who feel they have loved so deeply and so fiercely

that it's now that that love is gone, it feels like they are irrevocably broken? What would be your advice to those people from the outside of that moment? Yeah, I went through that before I had my sort of hot girl summer and it I can remember the intensity of it and the the devastation and the and the physical pain and feeling like devastation and the physical pain and feeling like this, I will always feel this way. And it was so useful to me to have people on the outside, friends saying to me, you're not always going to feel this way. It feels, I see that it feels so terrible right now and you feel that you're not going to get through it, but you will. Your feelings are valid and you know, you are devastated, but you're gonna feel differently.

It's gonna take time, but you're gonna feel differently. And I was, I think somebody said to me, it's a month for every year of the relationship that you were in or whatever. I mean, I don't know that that's like great math, but it was something like, in two months, you're gonna feel differently. And I thought, oh my God,

I'm gonna feel like this for two months? That's intolerable. And I think about that now and it's like, I barely remember that relationship, but I think the most important thing is to just hold on because you will feel better. I think it's impossible not to. I think it does.

I mean, it's such a cliche, again, but time heals all wounds. My mother used to say, this too shall pass. And I'd be like, you don't know. It's not going to pass. But it does. It does. I mean, you just have to keep living through it.

And that sometimes is the hardest part for people. But it does, it does get better. I wish, you know, I wish that somebody had been able to get through to Tony and, and, and convince him that he wouldn't always feel that devastating searing heartbreak that he felt. And I really understood it, you know, when I went through it a few years after he died, um, but, um, it doesn't last forever. And I think that's so important for people to, however you manifest that just to, just to stay alive through it is, is it's really worth it. Yeah. Well, I, I, I am truly loving this book.

I, I, it's also stunningly written. I admire your writing capabilities. I feel like I could have a whole other podcast where you just improve my writing and teach me what you know. It's really entertaining and funny. And for me reading it, there was no detectable anger in this book

for all of the things that you have been through and the kinds of characters you've had to deal with in your life. And, you know, it's a whole other story, the misconduct of men in this book. But there's something really evolved about the way that you present all of the information. And I think people will really, really, really get a lot out of it. I hope that everyone who's watching this will get a copy. It's called Care and Feeding, a memoir by Laurie Woollever. And I'm really grateful for your time. Thank you. It's great to be here. Thanks for watching everyone. Leave me a comment, let me know what you thought of this video.

And don't forget to watch Dating Made Simple before it disappears at midnight on Friday. Send it to your friends, your family, anyone you know who really wants to find love, but is kind of tired of the state of dating right now. I promise you this will help and it will give you a roadmap for finding love this year. Lovelifereplay.com is the link. Let me know what you think when you watch it. All right, I'll see you soon. you