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Sophie Grégoire Trudeau opens up about coping with Justin's public romance with Katy Perry
More than two years after separating from Justin Trudeau, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau seems to be coping with her ex’s public romance with singer Katy Perry. Moreover, she credits him with stepping up to joint parent their three children.
“I’m definitely not a single mom. I have a partnership with a father who has such deep love and availability to his children,” she said when she sat down recently with Canadian businesswoman Arlene Dickinson for a YouTube episode of “ Arlene Is Alone: The Single Life .”
The discussion with Grégoire Trudeau was wide-ranging, exploring mental health, motherhood, living in the public eye, and women finding authenticity amid constant scrutiny.
Acknowledging that being in the public eye can present many “triggers,” Grégoire Trudeau said she has learned to “listen to the music, not the noise.”
Dickinson injected her own sense of frustration with the publicity surrounding Justin and Perry (without mentioning the entertainer’s name but referring to the widely publicized photos of the couple in a Montreal restaurant and then on Perry’s yacht). “I don’t know how you stay cool … I really admire it because I would probably not be that way.”
Grégoire Trudeau responded by acknowledging “stuff affects us” and she is aware that a lot of “public stuff out there can be triggers.” However, she says she chooses not to stay triggered: “How you react to stuff is your decision. The woman I want to become through this is my decision.”
She said it’s possible to stay in a reactive state, but “you’ll suffer the consequences. Your stress levels are going to be up the roof. You’re going to become more and more judgmental because that’s a loop as well.”
Grégoire Trudeau married Justin Trudeau, the twenty-third prime minister of Canada, in 2005. The couple separated in 2023. There are no public plans to divorce. They have three children: Xavier James, Ella-Grace Margaret, and Hadrien Gregoire.
Dickinson asked her what’s it’s like to be a single mom. However, Grégoire Trudeau insisted she is not one, crediting her husband for his ongoing dedication to the family .
Regarding the very public life of a senior politician’s family, she spoke about “the scrutiny, the speed at which things are happening. You’re constantly reacting, knowing that when you go out there, the partner and the man you love, and your kids, they are under physical and psychological stress and safety issues. That’s hard to face as a family.”
“So, she said, “I can’t say I’m a single mom because we have raised these kids together.”
Dickson asked about times when Justin might be on the road and Grégoire Trudeau is facing a parental challenge. In response, Grégoire Trudeau said: “We call each other up. We’ll text each other … We will really try to build cohesion, so that the kids feel that cohesion … We have separate lives, but we have one family life, right?”
Despite the marriage breakup, Grégoire Trudeau insisted that it has been “a common, conscious decision that our family is our greatest creation and we’re going to feed it together no matter if we are on different life paths.”
Notably, the two women did not discuss that Grégoire Trudeau has been in a new relationship with Ottawa pediatric surgeon, Dr. Marcos Bettolli , possibly since before breakup became public in 2023.
Still, she expressed public anguish about the failure of the marriage. For example, in May 2024, People Magazine reported her saying: “It hurts deeply. You know, marriage is ‘success.’ Separation and divorce is ‘failure.'”
However, Grégoire Trudeau did not express any grief on this occasion. Instead, she went on to say that at age 50 she has learned people will “meet life where they are inside” and then a person must decide how they will let that affect their happiness.
At the end of any day, she said, you must ask “what did I do to take care of myself.”
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