Cheryl Strayed: Tiny Beautiful Things writer on grief, wisdom and her kids reading her books
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.
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 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.
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.
Entertainment
Yungblud pays tribute to his hero Ozzy Osbourne as he opens up about ‘raw’ documentary Are You Ready, Boy?
Yungblud has told Sky News he hopes he can keep Ozzy Osbourne’s “spirit and energy” alive after performing at the metal legend’s final gig.
The singer-songwriter paid tribute to his hero at the premiere of his upcoming documentary, Are You Ready, Boy?, which he admitted had been an “uncomfortable” watch as it shows him at his most vulnerable.
It gives fans a glimpse behind the curtain during the process of recording live tracks from his fourth studio album, Idols, which topped the charts in June.
On stage at Back To The Beginning. Pic: Kazuyo Horie
Just a few weeks later, he was on stage at Back To The Beginning – Ozzy Osbourne‘s “final bow” reunion gig with Black Sabbath, held at Villa Park in Birmingham. The metal pioneer died less than three weeks later.
Yungblud, whose real name is Dom Harrison, performed a cover of Osbourne’s song Changes, and went on to release his version as a single, raising funds for the same charities as the concert.
Afterwards, Ozzy gifted him a cross which he keeps around his neck.
Ozzy on stage during his final performance. Pic: Ross Halfin
“Ozzy is everything to me, always has been,” he says. “And to be able to go on stage and honour my hero and sing that song to him, without knowing that they were his final days, was everything to me.
“I will try my best to keep that spirit and keep that energy alive. I love that guy. I got to know him personally at the end and I love that family. I’ve got nothing but love, always.”
Now, Harrison is getting ready for the release of Are You Ready, Boy?, which was filmed at the famous Hansa Studios in Berlin, the birthplace of albums including David Bowie’s Heroes and U2’s Achtung Baby!.
Are You Ready, Boy? is released later in August
Making music and all of his creative output he sees as “life or death”, he says in the film. “I mean, 100%,” he adds while on the red carpet. “I think that’s how I like to play, you know? I mean, red or black, every time.
“I love taking risks and this film is the most vulnerable I think I’ve ever been. It’s pretty uncomfortable for me to watch. I’ve seen it once, I’ll watch it tonight and probably never watch it again…
“I think in this day and age, it’s very easy for us to cut around things and make them palatable and digestible. I wanted to do something that would be raw and uncomfortable, and this is what came out.”
The film comes during an intense period for the star, who has just opened his own music venue and shop in London, and is also planning a world tour and the return of his own festival, Bludfest, in 2026.
Read more:
Metal, reality TV, and bats: The wild life of Ozzy Osbourne
Fans flood streets to pay respects to Ozzy in Birmingham
“I think it’s important for [fans] to know who I really am,” he says, of why he wanted to make the film. “I think 30 seconds on an Instagram video doesn’t quite cut it. It’s a fly-on-the-wall documentary… we didn’t have an overarching narrative at the start of it.
“I said, come with me for two weeks, roll the cameras and see what happens.”
The star also spoke about Bludfest, which he launched in 2024. The third event next year will be “bigger and better,” he says.
The festival was set up as he felt prices had become too expensive and he wanted to show it could be done differently.
“I had something to prove,” he says. “I think this festival was important… It made me sick, the price of tickets. And a lot of promoters, I don’t think, took me seriously.
“We made a massive statement and I will continue to do that. I love my community, I love my fanbase. They’re all I care about.”
Are You Ready, Boy? is out in cinemas on August 20 and 24
Jeremy Clarkson has joined a backlash in the Cotswolds after US vice president JD Vance arrived at a picturesque hamlet in the region for his summer holiday.
Mr Vance and his family are staying at Dean Manor, a Grade II-listed country home in the tiny hamlet of Dean, during a trip where they also stayed with the Foreign Secretary David Lammy in Kent and will later travel to Scotland.
Local residents reportedly expressed their frustrations after Mr Vance’s enormous motorcade, consisting of 18 vehicles, caused a lockdown in the countryside on Monday.
People in the Cotswolds faced road closures and security checkpoints overseen by police with sniffer dogs as Mr Vance made his way to Dean Manor on Monday, according to GloucestershireLive.
It came before a “Vance Not Welcome Party” protest was organised by the groups “Everybody Hates Elon” and the “Stop Trump Coalition” in Charlbury, close to where Mr Vance is staying, today.
People attend the ‘Vance not welcome party’ protest as JD Vance spends his holiday nearby. Pic: Reuters
Pic: Reuters
The demonstrators held banners mocking the US vice president and calling him a “war criminal”, in an apparent reference to America’s support for Israel.
Several protesters held images of a widely shared meme depicting Mr Vance with a bald head. The meme went viral after a Norwegian tourist claimed he was not allowed into the US after immigration agents saw it on his phone.
One protester in Charlbury held a banner reading “JD Vance’s Netflix password is ‘password'”, while another held a sign which said: “JD Vance claps when the plane lands.”
Pic: Reuters
Meanwhile, a van displaying the image of a bald Mr Vance was seen driving through Charlbury.
A large sign outside a property in nearby Chipping Norton read: “Gaza starves, Vance not welcome.”
Pic: Reuters
Pic: Reuters
The demonstrations took place as former Top Gear presenter Clarkson shared an image on Instagram which highlighted how his farm is under a no-fly zone over the Cotswolds areas of Chadlington and Spelsbury.
In an apparent reference to filming for the fifth series of his show Clarkson’s Farm, the 65-year-old wrote: “The JD Vance no fly zone. We are the pin. So on the downside, no drone shots today. On the upside, no annoying light aircraft.”
However, he later sarcastically shared a video of a peaceful Cotswolds scene and wrote: “Utter chaos caused by Vance. How will we ever manage?”
Read more:
Vance doesn’t want UK to go down ‘dark path’
The ungodly history of Lammy’s grace-and-favour mansion
Kaleb Cooper, a farmer who is Clarkson’s co-star on the Amazon Prime show, said some of his “wheat got wet” after he got stuck behind Mr Vance’s convoy.
He wrote: “I could have easily went on my way and got it in the shed without getting in the way.”
Cooper also joked that if Mr Vance simply “drove around in a VW Polo nobody would know who he was”.
Clarkson’s “Diddly Squat Farm” in Chadlington is around three miles from the hamlet of Dean where Mr Vance is staying.
Well known for being popular with members of the British elite – former UK prime minister David Cameron lives in Dean – the Cotswolds is also becoming increasingly popular with wealthy Americans.
Some of them moved to the region after the election of Donald Trump last year. TV presenter Ellen DeGeneres is among those who has relocated to the area.
Not all of Dean’s residents appreciate its growing popularity. Jonathan Mazower, the head of communications for NGO Survival International, who owns one of Dean’s 15 homes, said he had to speak out against Mr Vance’s presence, adding: “It’s a massive intrusion and it’s not just the fact our lives are disrupted but it’s who he is.”
A police officer and a member of US security man a checkpoint and where a road closure was in place as JD Vance spends his holiday nearby. Pic: Reuters
Pic: Reuters
Pic: Reuters
Vance’s UK tour
The US vice president is expected to host shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick during his holiday – but not Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.
Mr Jenrick has been invited to meet Mr Vance before a drinks event on Tuesday, it is understood.
A Conservative spokesman said the party leader’s team had spoken to Mr Vance’s but that “scheduling” had proved difficult.
Both sides have played down the notion of a snub, the Telegraph reported.
It comes as the US vice president will travel to Scotland later this week in a trip that could see up to 1,000 police officers deployed as part of security efforts.
Sky News understands the Vance family are likely to visit Ayrshire but are not thought to be planning to stay at Mr Trump’s Turnberry resort in the area.
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Lammy-Vance Bromance: Will it last?
In Kent, Mr Vance said he had a “love” for the UK but joked he had committed a diplomatic faux pas as he began his holiday.
“Unfortunately, the one strain on the special relationship is that all of my kids caught fish, but the foreign secretary did not,” he said.
He also said he doesn’t want the UK to go down a “very dark path” of losing free speech.
Mr Vance described Mr Lammy as a “very, very gracious host”.
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