Chat show host Trisha Goddard is learning a new inclusive language for her non-binary child, vowing: “I won’t fight the future.”
The mother-of-two said her younger child, 28-year-old Madi, now identifies as non-binary – meaning they do not define themselves exclusively as masculine or feminine, and generally prefer “they” or “them” pronouns to he or she.
Trisha admitted that although she had to wrap her head around it, she will not reject “newness” and Madi will always be her “baby”.
She said: “I could understand I had a gay daughter, a queer daughter as they call it now. I really couldn’t care.
“I had to learn the ‘I don’t feel male, I don’t feel female’ thing. I had to wrap my head around it. It’s difficult.
“I said to Madi, ‘I don’t give a sh** what you are’. You are my baby, you are Madi. I will always talk to you, and address you as Madi, I’ll do my best. I’ll probably slip up.”
Madi and sister Billie are from Trisha’s second marriage. Earlier this year she announced her engagement to a prospective fourth husband.
Now 64, the presenter – whose show ran from 1998 to 2010 – said her age group falls into “two broad camps” of accepting or rejecting changes brought by younger generations.
She said: “I would like to put myself in this other camp – and I’m not I’m always successful at it – that thinks, ‘OK, don’t fight the future’.
“Younger generations are coming up, they’ve got different issues and attitudes, and I have to get on board.”
Trisha said rejecting topics such as learning new gender language is based on fear.
Speaking on Kaye Adams’ podcast How To Be 60, she explained: “It’s fear of loss of control and power. Once upon a time, there were people vehemently against the abolition of slavery, or women getting the vote.
“If the term ‘woke’ had been around, it would be like snowflakes – ‘why are you bothering to think about women getting the vote?’ All of those things, opposed by your Piers Morgans of the day.
“The world is now changing faster and faster.”
On Madi’s birthday last month, Trisha wrote on Instagram : “This kid is feisty, passionate, caring, loving and working on the front line to help those struggling with mental illness. They have taught me and her sis Billie a helluva lot about gender identity. They’ve always had a fierce moral compass.”
