Former Destiny’s Child Michelle Williams and model Naomi Campbell are Varda Étienne’s special guests on Tuesday at the C2 Montreal conferences. The Press spoke exclusively with the music star.
Posted at 8:00 a.m.
“Success does not guarantee that you will not suffer. It doesn’t erase pain or trauma. The singer and now author Michelle Williams, on the line, is not the most talkative. But her answers to our questions, as succinct as they are, prove that the former member of Destiny’s Child has come a long way since the time when she was part of one of the most popular groups in the world.
It wasn’t until her 30s that she was diagnosed with the depression and anxiety that had plagued her life since early childhood. “Depression accompanied me in Destiny’s Child, it was there all the time,” she summarizes. She finally got the help she needed “just nine years ago” when she decided to talk to her mother, who led her to see a professional and then enroll in a treatment center. The 43-year-old artist has finally resurfaced, having spent almost his entire life swallowed up by his malaise, having often thought about death.
PHOTO CATHERINE LEFEBVRE, THE PRESS
Varda Étienne will host Michelle Williams and Naomi Campbell’s conference
Michelle Williams published the book in 2021 Check-In, where she discusses this serious and long depression, but also the tools she has given herself to get out of it: live in honesty, break down the barriers that prevent vulnerability, heal the wounds of childhood…
For her, it has become vital to speak openly about her journey and her mental health issues. “By reading the book, many people can realize that they are not alone,” she tells us. Not everyone needs to speak publicly about what they are going through, but you do need to talk to someone about it, know there are resources, and use them. »
Summit meeting
These are the themes that Michelle Williams and host Varda Etienne will discuss on Tuesday as part of the “Conversations with Icons” conference, which will also be attended by one of the world’s most famous supermodels, Naomi Campbell.
PHOTO CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Naomi Campbell at Paris Fashion Week in October 2021
If Varda Étienne realizes a childhood dream by interviewing the British model and philanthropist, she feels that the conversation with Williams will be rather “like a conversation with one of [ses] girls “, she says.
Varda is an open book about her bipolarity and borderline personality disorder. When she read the memoirs of Michelle Williams, certain passages made her cry as she recognized herself in the testimony of the singer.
With Michelle, we will go in depth, we will talk about mental health, feelings. We have a lot in common. I’m going to ask her my questions as if it were from one friend to another.
Varda Etienne
As for Naomi Campbell, she admits to feeling a little nervous. “I interviewed many public figures, but she was my idol, I wanted to look like her,” she says.
When she was contacted to host at C2, she was initially only given the interview with Michelle Williams. “I was happy, I love Michelle, but I was also disappointed with Naomi. I asked who had obtained the interview with Naomi and their choice had not yet been made, says Varda Étienne. A week later, I leave my psychiatrist, I’m on the road. My agent calls me. She tells me to park: ‟Varda, you have it, you are the one doing Naomi Campbell.” I screamed in my car as if Naomi had just invited me to spend the weekend at her place! »
During this discussion with the model, she intends to address the themes of diversity and inclusion, her links with Africa, her work with young black girls, her empire and her philanthropism, lists-t- she. “Without trying to compare them, they are diametrically opposed,” remarks the host about her two distinguished guests, confident that she is looking forward to this important moment in her career, which “the young Varda” would never have dared to dream of.
Michelle Williams also says she is excited to attend the conference. “I can’t wait to be in Montreal, I’m grateful to have this opportunity. »
Her plans for the future, in this new path she has charted for herself as a spokesperson for mental health? “For now, I want to continue doing exactly what I’m doing right now,” the woman replies with few words. Write more, give more lectures, continue the work. »
Conversations with Icons, at the Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth this Tuesday, 4:15 p.m.