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Dr. Gabor Maté tells Sophie Grégoire he knew her marriage to Justin Trudeau wasn't going to last
Renowned Canadian trauma-care physician and author Dr. Gabor Maté said Tuesday he never “thought for a second” Sophie Grégoire Trudeau’s relationship to Justin Trudeau was going to last.
The remark came during an almost two-hour long online workshop, “Love, Trauma and the Power of Repair,” that was hosted by Grégoire Trudeau, a self-proclaimed mental health advocate .
“The first time I met you three years ago now, in Ottawa, I never thought for a second that your relationship would last, because I tell (you), somebody so close to being themselves, and I just didn’t see how (that relationship could last),” Maté said as he talked about Grégoire Trudeau’s personal drive toward authenticity and the breakdown of her marriage.
It was part of a broader discussion about the tension that Maté said can arise in relationships when partners struggle with authenticity versus attachment.
“The question is, which pain are you going to have,” he asked. “The pain of the loss of the attachment, or the pain of losing yourself. Now, as a child, you have no choice, and as an adult, it’s difficult to come to that choice because it reminds you of the set that yourself as a child every time you want to be yourself.”
Maté went on to point to another well-known politician and political wife, Hillary Clinton.
“So, women tend to absorb the stresses of their men … and their children, like Hillary Clinton. Hillary is a fine example. Her husband was a philander … and she said, ‘I didn’t realize how stressed he was,’ like it was her fault. She learned that in her childhood.”
Although Grégoire Trudeau didn’t respond to Maté’s remark about her marriage, the two went on to discuss wide-ranging topics, including how a relationship can come apart or be repaired.
Justin was 33 and Grégoire Trudeau 29 when they were married in May 2005 in Montreal. After 18 years of marriage, the couple announced their separation in 2023 and shared almost identical statements with the public that asked for privacy for their children.
Since the end of their marriage, Justin and Grégoire Trudeau have lived separate lives but have also been committed to co-parenting their children, Xavier, 18, Ella Grace, 16, and 11-year-old Hadrien.
One week after their split, they vacationed together in Tofino, B.C., with their kids. They reunited for another family vacation to Jamaica at Christmas , about two months after it was reported Grégoire Trudeau had been dating Ottawa pediatric surgeon, Dr. Marcos Bettolli , possibly since before she and Justin announced their separation.
In early 2024, while promoting her new book, Closer Together: Knowing Ourselves, Loving Each Other, Grégoire Trudeau spoke often about her and Justin’s new reality.
“We are still bound by love and respect and smiles and tears, and we’re still trying to figure it out,” she told Katie Couric in May . “And it’s not perfect, but when you keep things honest. Michael J. Fox said, ‘We’re only as sick as our secrets.’”
Toward the end of the workshop, Maté praised Grégoire Trudeau for her weekend appearance on the French Canadian TV show Chanteurs Masqués (Masked Singers).
“She was fantastic,” Maté, a lover of classical music, told the session participants.
“Oh, my God, thank you. I love singing, and I just, it was a playful thing to do,” Grégoire Trudeau responded. “I got my pipes going. So it was a good experience.”
“Well, your singing is fantastic,” said Maté. “I mean, there’s another career there.”
Smiling, Grégoire Trudeau said, “Oh, there we go. In the next workshop, I’ll sing for all of you from my heart.”
That’s when a participant burst in and exclaimed, “So, she beats out Katy Perry.”
Keeping her composure, Grégoire Trudeau did not pick up on the praise but said, “I did not say that.” And added: “Thank you for listening.”
The romance between her ex and the American pop star — including a highly publicized July rendezvous in Montreal, and further fuelled by repeated sightings together since — was officially confirmed by Perry last week when she shared photos on Instagram of the two of them in Japan. On the same trip, the pair dined with former Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida and his wife, Yuko .
In October, in the wake of published photos of Trudeau and Perry embracing atop a yacht in California, Grégoire Trudeau acknowledged the “triggers” that come with life in the public eye, but said she chooses not to stay triggered.
“How you react to stuff is your decision,” she said on Arlene Dickinson’s Arlene Is Alone: The Single Life YouTube show. “The woman I want to become through this is my decision.”
Grégoire Trudeau’s conversation with Maté was the second of two conversations they have had in recent months. The first was in the spring of 2024 at the Vancouver Writers Festival .
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