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As she prepares to release her upcoming self-help book next month, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau is revving up the publicity train.

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Set to hit bookstores in April, Gregoire Trudeau, 48, is plotting two books focusing on her mental health journey. Part of the description of the book on her publisher’s website reads, “Sophie Gregoire Trudeau invites readers on a deeply personal journey toward self-knowledge, acceptance, and empowerment, drawing on the expertise of top psychologists, psychiatrists, scientists, and thought leaders.”

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The first book, Closer Together: Knowing Ourselves, Loving Each Other, follows her breakup with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last summer.

It was written before the two called it quits. But, of course, Gregoire Trudeau is facing questions about the dissolution of her marriage to the Liberal leader, whom she married in 2005 and shares three children with.

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Gregoire Trudeau commemorated her recent Elle Canada cover story on social media. She followed up that post with a clip from her appearance at Forbes and Know Your Value’s 3rd annual 30/50 Summit. The mother-of-three spoke candidly about her struggles with an eating disorder and women resisting the expectation that they must learn to accept their needs not being met emotionally, mentally and physically as a part of life.

“Your needs, you shouldn’t expect the minimum,” the former journalist told the audience, using words which might have been an unintentional swipe at her ex. “You should expect a maximum of nourishment, presence and help in your life with the people around you. And we shouldn’t have to hold it all together as women … this is a lesson for life.”

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Sharing her story “was not the easiest thing to do, but it was the right thing to do,” she continued. But she hinted that she has learned to frame a new outlook, away from her life as the spouse of a deeply unpopular politician.

“I sit in silence — I love silence — I go out and move in nature,” she said (per MSNBC). “I also like to dance in my kitchen and just love it. And I love human connection … I love good mischief. Who doesn’t? I think we need more playfulness in this world — and it doesn’t mean that we’re light and that there’s no substance — it’s quite the opposite. We should be very wary of … adults who can’t play anymore.”

In a new interview with Vogue, she elucidated on that sentiment when she described herself as “a wild horse in a stall.”

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“Sometimes I just want to run in a field,” Gregoire Trudeau said.

Vogue’s interviewer, Mattie Kahn, added: “If she and her children are crammed in somewhere, one of her preferred modes of maternal embarrassment is to neigh as loud as she can.”

Close friends of Gregoire Trudeau echoed that characterization when they spoke about how she felt trapped by her husband’s political ascent.

“She was put in an impossible position,” one Canadian journalist said. “She was just stuck.”

“I have three children and a husband who is prime minister,” Gregoire Trudeau said in 2016. “I need help. I need a team to help me serve people.”

“It was like, ‘Really?’ ” Gregoire Trudeau tells the outlet of the public outrage following her comments.

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“I always remind myself that it was an unofficial position to be in, so it was kind of like uncertain waters to navigate,” she elaborated in her conversation with Elle. “You do what you need to do; it’s one foot in front of the other. There was no defined role or responsibilities, so it was clear to me that I was going to continue on my path of (focusing on) mental health, eating disorders and self-esteem.”

As for the breakup, Gregoire Trudeau isn’t delving into too many details and is instead moving forward in her new reality as she co-parents with her estranged husband.

“Is it my fault? Is it his fault? There’s a lot of blaming, when what we’re all trying in our relationships and our connections is to heal ourselves or validate our emotions,” she told Vogue.

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But in her conversation with Elle, Gregoire Trudeau said the split wasn’t nearly as bad as she thought it could be.

“I imagined the worst-case scenario, I’ll tell you that,” she told the magazine. “I had to. I didn’t want to be naive. But I also had to protect myself.”

Still, there’s one word she uses to describe their separation and their new reality going forward (Gregoire is rumoured to have “re-partnered” with a former beau).

“Hard,” she said. “(I had to) face the truth (and) choose authenticity over attachment. I’m a family woman — family is everything to me (because) I’m an only child, so the thought of breaking that mould or transforming that mould … Even the words we use to describe relationships — it’s either success (and you) stay together or failure (and you) go on different paths. We really need to develop a new vocabulary for human beings as we transform on our own paths.”

mdaniell@postmedia.com

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