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When Cheryl Strayed was still at college, her mother’s sudden death transformed her life.

She went from being a successful student to a heroin addict.

The grief she experienced, and the story of how she turned such loss around to become a best-selling author, has inspired fans around the world.

But the 54-year-old writer tells Sky News: “I have no interest in being anyone’s guru.”

Best known for her 2012 memoir Wild – an international bestseller adapted into the 2014 film both produced by and starring Reese Witherspoon – Strayed wasn’t always so willing to share her personal experiences with the world.

Reese Witherspoon, Cheryl Strayed and Laura Dern (L-R) at the Wild premiere in 2014
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Laura Dern, Cheryl Strayed and Reese Witherspoon (L-R) at the premiere of Wild in 2014. Pic: AP

She describes her first deeply personal piece of writing, titled Heroin/e, as “a raw, personal essay about my grief, about my foray into drug use, and about the sorrow, the agony, essentially, I was in as a young woman – who didn’t have her mother”.

Published in a magazine called Double Take, she admits her first feeling on seeing her work in print wasn’t pride, but an urge to “go buy every copy of this magazine so nobody reads it”.

However, soon afterwards the magazine contacted her to say they’d received hundreds of letters – a bigger response than ever before – from readers saying they had truly connected with her work.

Strayed says: “That has really made me strong. I’m always afraid to publish personal things about myself. I’m always terrified.

“And yet every single time I’ve been terrified, they’re the times that people say, ‘Thank you for saying that, we needed that to be said. You saved me, you changed me, you helped me’…”

She goes on: “People need to hear the truth because they need to understand they’re not alone.”

Such a transparent approach to her life has won her a legion of fans, but Strayed admits she sometimes needs to take a step back.

“I feel like it is a gift that people feel that, kind of… open and warm towards me… But also, I’ve had to really learn.

“I’ve had to actually take some of the advice I would give to other people, learn how to maintain those boundaries.”

She adds: “I’ve already given you my best thing… The thing that I can give the world is through my writing… I have no interest in being anyone’s guru.

“And so I just try to greet people with gratitude and compassion and love, which I genuinely feel for the people who read my work and love it.”

‘Feeling less alone’

Now, following the success of Wild, another of her works has been adapted for the screen.

Disney+ original Tiny Beautiful Things is based on Strayed’s best-selling collection of essays Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar.

It was compiled from an advice column which she wrote anonymously on The Rumpus, an online literary magazine.

Kathryn Hahn stars in Tiny Beautiful Things. Pic: Disney+
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Kathryn Hahn plays a fictionalised version of Cheryl. Pic: Disney+

As much a personal memoir as an advice and self-help tool, Strayed says she began sharing her own personal experiences as part of her Dear Sugar advice in a nod to the many stories that had helped her during her own times of pain.

“When I was in the deep suffering in the years right after my mum died in my twenties, it was books I turned to, collections of poetry and collections of essays, and novels and plays, to see the humanity, to see the universal stories of love and loss and suffering and triumph.

“And all of those things made me feel less alone.”

Wisdom where you’d least expect it

Strayed says she has also learned to gain insights from the most unexpected of places.

“I think the most important thing ever is to stay awake and aware, and alive to wisdom in all of its forms,” she says.

“Sometimes it comes out of the mouth of your six-year-old child. Sometimes it comes from a stranger in the grocery store line.

“Sometimes it comes from a book, sometimes it comes from a therapist. Sometimes it comes from an advice columnist.

“[So it’s important] to stay awake to the fact that wisdom doesn’t come from a single source.”

Starring Kathryn Hahn, Sarah Pidgeon, Quentin Plair, and Tanzyn Crawford, Tiny Beautiful Things follows Clare – who is a fictionalised version of Strayed – as a struggling writer finding success as an advice columnist, while her own life is falling apart.

Tiny Beautiful Things. Pic: Disney+
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Sarah Pidgeon (L) in Tiny Beautiful Things. Pic: Disney+

No Hollywood version of grief

Touching on her mother’s death in the show, Strayed says one of the most important things for her was to portray the reality of grief – not a sanitised Hollywood version of it.

“It’s so important to me that we do not tell this false story about grief that gets told over and over again, which is like this idea that if you still experience grief years after somebody has died, that somehow, you’ve been held back and the way to heal is to let it go.

“To me, the way that grief functions is… of course, immediately after somebody has died – that is very often the fiercest, hardest grieving time.

“But you don’t leave that sorrow behind.”

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She says she has learned a valuable lesson about loss: “Grief is part of who I am. And it is both a very painful, hard thing that I wish didn’t happen to me and one of the greatest gifts of my life. And I will carry it always.

“I can carry it in a burdensome way that holds me back, that causes me pain, that forces me to be destructive, or do things that heavy weights can sometimes do.

“Or I can carry it like the basket of riches that it is…”

She goes on: “If you really want to honour that person you love so much, make something beautiful of that ugliness of that loss.”

And what do her children think?

A mother herself, she admits her children, son Carver, 18, and daughter Bobbi, 17, have yet to read any of her work.

So, does she ever worry about them learning so much about their mother’s life from her books?

On the contrary, Strayed says it’s the cherry on the cake: “It makes me feel happy that when they’re ready to know their mum on a deeper level, there’s a bunch of crazy stuff I wrote.”

Tiny Beautiful Things is streaming now on Disney+ in the UK, and on Hulu in the US.

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Snoop Dogg becomes co-owner and investor of Swansea football club saying it’s ‘an underdog just like me’

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Snoop Dogg becomes co-owner and investor of Swansea football club saying it's 'an underdog just like me'

Snoop Dogg has become a co-owner and investor of Swansea, with the US rapper hailing the Welsh football club as “an underdog that bites back, just like me”.

The former Premier League club, which plays in the English second tier, confirmed the US rapper and producer plans to use his own money to invest in it, Sky Sports reports, although it didn’t disclose financial details.

“My love of football is well known, but it feels special to me that I make my move into club ownership with Swansea City,” the music icon said in the announcement.

“The story of the club and the area really struck a chord with me,” he added. “This is a proud, working class city and club.

“An underdog that bites back, just like me.

“I’m proud to be part of Swansea City. I am going to do all I can to help the club.”

Swansea’s American owners, led by Brett Cravatt and Jason Cohen, are trying to grow the Championship club’s global brand and increase commercial revenue.

Snoop Dogg, 53, who has 89m followers on Instagram and more than 20m on X, helped launch the team’s 2025-26 home shirt last weekend.

More on Snoop Dogg

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The club ownership group said: “To borrow a phrase from Snoop’s back catalogue, this announcement is the next episode for Swansea City as we seek to create new opportunities to boost the club’s reach and profile.”

Luka Modric, who recently signed with AC Milan from Real Madrid, joined Swansea’s ownership group in April.

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Police taking no further action after investigating Kneecap’s Glastonbury show

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Police taking no further action after investigating Kneecap's Glastonbury show

Police are taking no further action over Kneecap’s performance at Glastonbury.

Officers said they had investigated “comments about a forthcoming court case made during Kneecap’s performance” at the festival on 28 June.

However, after Crown Prosecution Service advice, they decided there is not enough evidence “to provide a realistic prospect of conviction for any offence”.

The Avon & Somerset force started investigating the Irish group’s show last month, as well as comments by punk-rap duo Bob Vylan.

It said they were looking at a possible public order incident.

Police said on Friday that the investigation into Bob Vylan’s performance was ongoing.

The London duo were widely criticised – and caused a BBC crisis – after leading on-stage chants of “death to the IDF” (Israel Defence Forces).

Kneecap's Liam Og O Hannaidh leaves Westminster Magistrates' Court in London
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Kneecap’s Liam Og O Hannaidh appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in June. Pic: PA

Kneecap posted a photograph on Instagram, which the group said was an email from police announcing the case was being dropped.

They said their packed Glastonbury gig was a “celebration of love and solidarity” and reporting used “wildly misleading headlines”.

Fears over what Kneecap might do or say during the performance had prompted the BBC not to show it live.

The group said: “Every single person who saw our set knew no law was broken, not even close… yet the police saw fit to publicly announce they were opening an investigation.”

“There is no public apology, they don’t send this to media or post it on police accounts,” they added.

The police statement on Friday said they had informed Kneecap of their decision to drop the case.

Read more from Sky News:
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One of the group’s members appeared in court in June charged with a terror offence.

Liam Og O hAnnaidh is accused of displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah, a proscribed organisation in the UK, at a gig last year.

He was released on unconditional bail ahead of a second court appearance in August.

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Tomorrowland: ‘Devastating’ blaze destroys main stage at major festival – two days before it was due to begin

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Tomorrowland: 'Devastating' blaze destroys main stage at major festival - two days before it was due to begin

A huge fire has destroyed the main stage of a major festival in Belgium – two days before it was due to begin.

Tomorrowland is a dance music event as big as Glastonbury – and David Guetta was due to perform.

Footage showed flames and thick plumes of black smoke engulfing the stage and spreading to nearby woodland on Wednesday.

fire destroyed the main stage at the Tomorrowland festival site in Belgium
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The fire gutted the main stage


 fire which destroyed the main stage at the Tomorrowland festival site in Belgium
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Fire crews attempt to bring the blaze under control

The annual festival in the town of Boom, north of Brussels, is one of the biggest in Europe and attracts about 400,000 people over two consecutive weekends.

It is famous for its immersive and elaborate designs and attracts big names within dance music – including Guetta, best known for tracks When Love Takes Over and Titanium.

Dutch DJs Martin Garrix and Charlotte de Witte were also due to perform, along with the likes of Swedish House Mafia, Eric Prydz and Alok.

A fire destroyed the main stage at the Tomorrowland festival site in Belgium
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Black smoke could be seen rising into the sky


The festival’s website described the creative elements which went into the elaborate main stage.

More on Belgium

The theme, described as Orbyz, was “set in a magical universe made entirely out of ice” and “full of mythical creatures”.

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Organisers said no one was injured in the blaze but confirmed “our beloved main stage has been severely damaged”, adding they were “devastated”.

Spokesperson Debby Wilmsen added: “We received some truly terrible news today. A fire broke out on the Tomorrowland site … and our main stage was essentially destroyed there, which is truly awful.

“That’s a stage that took years to build, with so much love and passion. So I think a lot of people are devastated.”

Spokesperson Debby Wilmsen who said fire destroyed the main stage at the Tomorrowland festival site in Belgium
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Spokesperson Debby Wilmsen told reporters ‘a lot of people are devastated’

Despite the fire, Tomorrowland organisers said they were still expecting 38,000 festivalgoers at DreamVille, the event’s campsite.

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