Yes, your friends are talking about you.
Holly unpacks what we learnt from the 'White Lotus Three'. What happened when Madeleine West confronted her abuser. And a woman on Ozempic responds to her haters. Welcome to your weekly dose of Mid!
HOLLY: I have a friend who thinks I'm not always the best mother.
She thinks I'm a bit slap-dash. A bit inconsistent. That I'm not across the details enough, and that for children, details matter. She thinks that out of guilt, I indulge my kids a bit.
She's right.
I have a friend who thinks I can be a bit selfish. That emotional labour isn't my strong suit, and it wouldn't kill me to lift my head and organise a birthday dinner every now and again.
She's right.
I have a friend who thinks I make my life harder than it needs to be. That I can procrastinate to the point where problems become crises.
She's 100 per cent right.
The old friends who know you best do not think you are perfect. In fact, they know, with absolute certainty, that you are not. Just as you know that about them.
The people who've been embedded in your life for a long time also know all the things you got wrong. The relationships that should have been flings. The flings that belonged to someone else. The lies you got caught in. That time your boss made a clumsy pass, and you didn't slap them down. What you say about your mother when you're drunk. That you flirt when you're feeling insecure. The hairstyles you thought were hot but made you look like a thumb…
🎧 Follow below to listen to Holly, Mia and Jessie unpack how old friends bring out the worst in us on Out Loud.
Read and listen to more
READ: A helpful guide to all the 'feuds' happening between the White Lotus gang right now.
LISTEN: The Three Rules For Friendship Catch-Ups on Out Loud.
READ: 9 shows to fill The White Lotus-shaped hole in your life.
When Madeleine West knocked on her rapist's door, his wife offered her a cup of tea.
Madeleine West is no stranger to a performance. But she says her "finest piece of acting" wasn't on screen — it happened on a quiet suburban street in 2022.
On the morning of June 13 that year, West took on the most confronting role of her life: confronting her childhood abuser.
Her mission? To get a confession from the paedophile who had abused her, and at least six other children, in the regional Victorian town of Woodend and Sunbury in Melbourne's north-west in the 1970s and '80s.
Peter Vincent White, her old next-door neighbour, was the monster hidden in plain sight.
White was the local plumber, known for his charm, generosity, and readiness to help. He used games, toys and treats to groom and abuse seven girls and boys aged between four and 14. His victims were neighbours, children of friends, or his own kids' friends.
West was just four years old when the abuse began. It continued until she was 11 — a secret she kept buried for more than 30 years.
"No one would dream that this wonderful, generous person who held fabulous parties and invited everyone in the neighbourhood, who'd pop over … would fix your block toilet without batting an eye, was using that very positive public facade, to hide the most horrific… heinous, cataclysmic crime you can imagine," West told No Filter's Kate Langbroek…
🎧 Follow below to hear the full conversation with Kate Langbroek on No Filter.
Read and listen to more
READ: Madeleine West thought she was entering menopause when her doctor confirmed the near impossible.
LISTEN: Flooding, Panic & An Idiot Allergy: The Great Mid Hormone Surprise on MID
READ: Madeleine West announced her 7th pregnancy. Then came the comments.
'I've been using Ozempic for 5 months... and the haters were right.'
Every Tuesday morning for the past six months, I've been grasping the soft roll on my lower belly between my two fingers.
With a big exhale, I've pressed a tiny needle into my skin and released a dose of GLP-1 into my body, suppressing my appetite and helping me to lose the weight I have been so desperately trying to shed for years.
I've been dieting for as long as I can remember, and my weight has been up and down all my life.
When it was down it was from sheer willpower and excessive working out, and any slight divergence from the strict food and exercise rules would add kilos and a negative impact on my mental health.
My mum would say, "You only have to look at a cake to gain weight," and she was right.
For decades, I teetered between starving my body and eating so much I hated myself. Food had that much power over me…
Read and listen to more
READ: 'I lost weight for my wedding. This is why I regret it.'
LISTEN: The Ozempic Side Effect Targeting Women on The Quicky
READ: At 30, Olivia went off the pill. What followed was '10 years of hell'.
THE SCROLL 📱
5 things to feed your mind and fill your soul.
1. A man has been jailed for a crime so heinous his sentencing is an Australian-first.
2. What actually works for hair loss for women? We asked an expert.
3.'Life has been feeling hard lately. Then I learnt about the April Theory.'
4. Tom Hanks' daughter grew up under her mother's roof. She just shared a tragic truth about her childhood.
'The brilliance of Hacks on Stan is how it captures intergenerational relationships.'
ICYMI 👀
Everything we know about The White Lotus season 4, so far. After Meghan Markle gave birth, she was given a 'rare and scary' diagnosis. You might not want to ask your stylist for the latest hair trend. Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher's divorce was nothing like we were told. Russell Brand wants you to believe he's a changed man. He's just been charged with rape. Australia’s Next Top Model runner-up Lucy Markovic has died, aged 27. When Ed Sheeran's wife was in her second pregnancy, he penned a heartbreaking diary entry.
MID-SPO STYLE 👗💄
We are all still recovering from THAT White Lotus finale and are still very much in White Lotus Fever. It (weirdly) always leaves us wanting to go on a holiday (albeit minus the drama). So we thought we’d share what White Lotus Season 3 taught us about luxury design—and how you can bring that same calm, elevated feeling into your own home. Like bringing zen like resort vibes, without the price tag of a holiday.
You can catch interiour designer Penny Modern’s video below ⬇️
Our pick of what’s new in beauty, home and style on Mamamia this week.
LEIGH CAMPBELL: 'The "confidence clothes" I wear when I want to feel my best.'
The only boots you will need this season.
'The 5 budget skincare products that actually work for over 50s skin.'
'I've hunted down the best blazers that'll go with everything in your wardrobe.'
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