Calling Out the BS, Including My Own

Chalene Johnson : [00:00:00] What is up? Happy Friday. Welcome to The Chalene Show. Today, I think you’re gonna really enjoy this one because I’m gonna identify all the ways that I am a hypocrite and why my husband deserves an award. Maybe yours does, too, or maybe it’s you that deserves the award. But today I’m gonna lay out all the evidence, all the ways that I am acknowledging I am a royal pain in the ass and a hypocrite to be married to, and he’s really okay with it.

I don’t think this is an act. After we’re going on four decades here, I think it’s legit, but I don’t know, you tell me. And then I wanna talk about something we’ve probably all experienced, when you see someone who you grew up watching on TV and maybe haven’t seen them in 20 years, and then all of a sudden you see them on whatever, a TikTok or a story in the news, and you’re like, “Oh my God, they got older.” And you know what that means? It means we’re old, too.

Chalene Johnson :[00:01:00] We’re gonna talk about Christina Applegate, Selma Blair. Two things they have in common are MS diagnoses, some health struggles, and why this has turned into entertainment, and what it says about all of us, and why some of the most popular stories right now that we just- we can’t get enough of are the stories about successful women, like the controversies, the takedown content, some of the gossip that’s spread around Oprah, Celine Dion, Mel Robbins, some uber-successful female influencers.

People don’t like them, and what people do enjoy consuming is content uncovering the truth, looking under the hood, exposing them, if you will. And I wanna talk about that type of content. I wanna know what your take is on it. So we’re gonna get into it today. All right. Without further ado, let’s get started. Thought I’d do a little something different to start the show off today, this fine Friday.

Chalene Johnson :[00:02:00] I notice when people have a birthday or they’re honoring their partner on their birthday or their anniversary or Valentine’s Day, it’s always like schmoopy-whoopy, and you almost feel, like, obligated to do it. Every time it happens, every time it’s, like, one of my kids’ birthdays or Brett’s or it’s our anniversary, I start, like, going, like, “Oh, ” Like, halfway through the day I realize it, and then I start writing, like, this poetic dedication to them, and then I’m like, “Oh, it’s not good enough.” And then I go to AI and say,

“Can you fix this?”

And I’m like, “That’s not it either. Let me just write it. Oh my God,” And then what if this ever got leaked and my husband knew that I used AI to improve my Instagram caption? And then what happens? I forget to post it, and then I feel like a loser. So today I thought, you know, I was thinking about these things. I’m just gonna share them today. Why do we need a special day? Why do I have to follow the rules? I don’t need to wait until it’s his birthday or something like that. I’m, I’m gonna tell you these things today.

Chalene Johnson :[00:03:00] And I could sit here and I could list all of Brett’s incredible qualities, but that wouldn’t be fun for you.
You’d be like, “That’s boring.” So I actually thought it’d be much more fun, maybe more compelling to demonstrate to you how extraordinarily amazing this man is simply by telling you how annoying I am. ‘Cause I realize it, I recognize it, and I regularly thank him for putting up with me. Because the fact that this man has spent nearly four decades with me voluntarily and somehow still seems to, I don’t know, genuinely enjoy me?

I think that says a lot about his character . Says a lot about his patience, I guess, or his tolerance for chaos. I mean, maybe you think it’s impressive that people can speak French and English. Brett speaks Shaleen, which is ADHD chaos. It’s not even a language. A lot of times it’s I expect him to have telepathy.

Chalene Johnson :[00:04:00] Okay, so let’s get to the list, and maybe there’s some of these that you can relate to as well, or maybe you’ll just think I’m a horrible person, but hopefully you have a sense of humor, and if you’ve been married for nearly four decades, you get it. I can throw his shoes away if I’ve decided they’re no longer in style or they’re just too dirty.

I’ll just like, you know, “These go in the donation pile.” You do understand if those roles were reversed, it would just never happen. I don’t know when that started, but it’s not just his shoes. It’s his clothes, too. In my mind, again, ’cause I’m a horrible person, if he wears something, I’m like, “Mm, that’s just not very flattering,” or I don’t like that color, or I don’t know how to tell him that’s not in style anymore.

It just disappears. Why should we talk about it? Out of sight, out of mind. When I’m looking forward to eating something and it’s all I can think about, and then I open up the freezer and someone has taken the last frozen peppermint patty, and I knew there was one there earlier, I’m like, “Okay, so has he also filed divorce papers?”

Chalene Johnson :[00:05:00] Like, I was gonna eat that. Like, how would he not know that I… Shouldn’t I have the last of everything, like if I’m really looking forward to that thing? However, me, I’m gonna take the last one. Worse than that, I’m also gonna forget that it’s my responsibility to add a backup order to our Instacart so that when he comes home, he can enjoy his favorite treat.

Nope. Uh-uh. I guess it’s all about me. Posting a photo of me. Now, maybe this is a skill. Like, he just knows I’m gonna pick his most flattering angle. I’m gonna pick a photo that looks great of both of us, and he doesn’t question it. I don’t have to say, “Hey, do you like this?” I mean, on occasion I will, but more often than, than not, I just post it up.

But oh, good Lord, if that man posted a photo without my full scrutiny, zooming it, and he’s done it by accident. And I’ll tell you what, he is not gonna experience that wrath again. He knows better. Like, go ahead, do whatever you need to do to the photo, or select the one that you want and then send me the one that you pick.

Chalene Johnson :[00:06:00] I guess when we got married, I became legally responsible for his hair and his beard No, you can’t go to the barber and get creative if he came home and he shaved off his beard and just had a, had a mustache I would be in shock I would be like, “Who am I married to? You did that without authorization?”

Meanwhile, I’ll go and get curly extensions I’ll take my hair from blonde to what it’s called now, brond? What do they call it? Brond? Yeah, which is blonde and brown If he, like, suddenly changed or, like, shaved his head without a discussion, what? Excuse me? You did this without getting an approval or proposing your changes to the board? And I am the board, so you must not have Okay, I have to interrupt for just a second to tell you this story.

Chalene Johnson :[00:07:00] So I’m having this conversation with a woman who’s a few years older than me this weekend, and she was telling me that she’s past menopause. I’m like, “But once you’re in menopause, you’re in it forever.”

And she’s like, “Well, I don’t have to worry about it. I’m not having symptoms anymore.” And it made me realize how many women don’t realize before you hit menopause and after you hit menopause, you still need to think about your hormones. The reason why you need to think about your hormones, and if they’re not normal, we don’t want normal.

Normal is not good. We want optimized. Because normal in the United States means we’ve been forgotten about. You want optimized because when your hormones are optimized, it’s going to impact your body composition. It’s gonna affect the way your body stores fat, the way that your body holds onto muscle or loses it. It’s gonna help you to recover quicker. You’re gonna have less joint pain. You’ll have stronger bones. The reason why you need to think about your hormones is because it’s responsible for so many of the things that impact your mood, sleep, motivation, brain fog. I mean, obviously, there’s the physical things, too.

Chalene Johnson :[00:08:00] Like I said, bone density, your cardiovascular health, your insulin sensitivity, vaginal and urinary health. Like, it is not normal that we have rows and rows and rows of adult diapers. That is because urinary incontinence, vaginal health, all these things are tied to hormones. It’s not just about hot flashes.

You need to speak with a clinician to figure out where are your hormones and how to put together a plan for you. But most importantly, I want you to talk to a clinician who this is all that they do, and they’re not easy to find. It’s why I’m proud to tell you that a sponsor for our show is Midi Health.
Midi Health is a company that I use, and I’ve recommended it to thousands of you, and I just keep hearing amazing stories. Like yesterday, I got a DM from a woman who said, “Getting on hormone replacement therapy saved my life. Not to be dramatic, but girl, what are you waiting for?” Midi Health is a telehealth company, but all they do is specialize in women’s hormone health and care.

Chalene Johnson :[00:09:00] They’re up to date on the latest research. They will work with your local doctor, your local pharmacy, and they work with almost every single major insurance company, and they’re adding new ones every single day. So I’d love for you to call and just learn more. Get yourself a consult by going to chalene.com/midi M-I-D-I.

I know these things are important to you, everything I listed, and it’s never too early, and it’s never too late. The earlier you start, the better, and the sooner you start, if you’re already in menopause, the better. There are options for you even if you’re in your seventies and eighties. Chalene.com/midi

Chalene Johnson : Fashion.

Now, sometimes he tries this. Sometimes he’ll, he’ll take a little fashion risk, like he’s seen something or… It’s not even that usually. It’s usually he’s gone to the store to go buy something like a simple black pair of Nikes, and he’ll come back with blue ones, and I’m like, “Huh? Wait, honey, these rules are in place for your own protection, okay?”

Chalene Johnson :[00:10:00] So, like we all have our lanes. I’m not gonna start buying stocks without his input, and he really should not be buying shoes, especially colored shoes. When I see these dudes at the gym walking around with these neon-colored shoes that look like they’re clowns, and they’re on these big cushiony, marshmallowy soles, and they’re like paint splattered.

Or worse, shoes that destroy a great outfit. Like you’ve got a great outfit on, and then you throw on a pair of shoes that like, what are you doing? Those don’t go. They don’t match. They’re… Look, you need a wife who’s in charge of this area of your relationship, of your life, your identity, or you need a gay best friend. You know what I’m saying? Like, I recently convinced Brett, I’m like, “Honey, we should go shopping for you.” I’m always buying clothes. I buy mine online. He hates shopping in person, and he, he doesn’t like shopping online either.

Chalene Johnson :[00:11:00] I’m like, “We should just spend a day and pick out a bunch of new clothes for you.”
He goes, “I, I’ll probably do that myself.” My eyes start bugging out of my head. I don’t need him being taken advantage of by some 23-year-old sales whore who’s like, “Oh my God, that looks so good on you,” and then he comes home trying to dress like he’s someone her age, ’cause he’s a people pleaser, and if somebody helps him in a store, he’s gonna buy whatever they bring to them, and we cannot take that risk.

I need to be there to supervise. This is for his own protection. I only have his best interests at heart, the same way he has our best interests at heart. When we go on a vacation, like, it would be detrimental for both of us if, for some reason, he thought it might be a good idea for me to do some vacation planning or planning in general.

This week, this happened on, I think, Tuesday. On Monday, I told Bre, “Hey, let’s go to a movie.” And he’s like, “Okay, what do you wanna see?” And I told him I wanted to see the Elizabeth Holmes documentary. I talked about it on Wednesday’s show.

Chalene Johnson :[00:12:00] If you didn’t listen, go back and listen to it, especially if you’ve already seen it and you skipped it ’cause of the spoiler alerts.
It’s at the very end of Wednesday’s episode. But it’s called You Can See Everything with Nathan Fielder. Is that his last name? I forget right now. Anyways, he was like, “Okay.” I’m like, “Trust me, it’s gonna be so good.” Because we have a division of labor, and mine might be his outfit and his shoes, amongst other things, on Tuesday he said, “What time should I get the tickets for?”

And I surprised him and I said, “I already took care of it.” He almost fell out of his chair. And then I get a notification from my AI assistant that said, “Hey, just alerting you. By the way, those tickets you purchased, you’ll need to leave now. It’s an hour drive from your location.” I’m like, “What did I do?”
Sure enough, I go and look, and I had booked the tickets at the wrong location an hour away from us, so I had to cancel those tickets, rebuy new tickets. Like, if I were the person in charge of our European vacation, I’ll tell you what would happen.

Chalene Johnson :[00:13:00] I would find an, an amazing hotel, and I would be shocked because the ideal room was available and I couldn’t even believe it, and I would book the room.

I would book dinner reservations. I’d be so proud of myself. We would get on the flight. We would end up in the, you know, the wrong country. We would finally get to the right country, and then we would discover that what I booked online was for two years into the future, and that’s the reason why the rooms were available.

That’s what would happen. How he doesn’t skip a beat when he puts our travel itineraries together, you guys, it’s insane. And now, of course, you can use AI, but, like, he just has a finesse to it that, like, every single detail’s freaking perfect. I don’t know how he does it. Should I have him do, like, a little, I don’t know, a little snippet for you guys on Patreon?

Chalene Johnson :[00:14:00] By the way, speaking of extra bonus content on Patreon, so I’ve done these AI episodes that are specifically geared towards those of you who are like, “I don’t get it. I don’t really see a need for it,” or, “I don’t see a reason why I should be learning how to create my own assistant,” or, “I, I don’t see how it would help my life that immensely.”

So Patreon right now is 50% off, so it’s like three bucks. So when you go to this link right now, chalene.com/more, I’m gonna link it so it goes directly to those AI episodes. And you can listen to those, and then you can listen to all the other Between Friends content, or you can decide to become a Vault member for 50% off, and you can listen to all that content. And if you like it, you can stay, and if you don’t, you can cancel. But those AI episodes I think are really, really important because I’ve heard from so many people who are like, “I use AI a little bit. I’m just not that into it. But Chalene, those episodes have changed my life. How did I live without having my own assistant?

And I didn’t realize all the ways that I needed one and how much freedom it,” like… Okay, so anyways, enough about that. The link is in the show notes, and it’s chalene.com/more. Super simple. Oh, by the way, when you go to that page, the episode, the first five minutes of the episode will play. You can even, like, listen to the first five minutes and decide, “Okay, this is up my alley or not.”

Chalene Johnson :[00:15:00] Okay. This could very well be just something that’s happens in our household. Maybe it’s different in everyone’s household, but, like, moving furniture, like, if I came home and the couch was in a different location, I’d be like, “H- uh, uh, do you wanna explain yourself?” Whereas he comes home and I’ve changed out all the pillows, the couches are in a different location, I’ve gotten on my back and pushed the bed by myself across the room into another location, and dude, he doesn’t even question it. He’s just like, “Yep.” This is a majorly hypocritical one, though. I feel kind of bad about it. When I was sick, you know, for like two weeks, I just feel like he shouldn’t get a good workout if I can’t get one. I don’t think that’s fair.

Chalene Johnson :[00:16:00] That’s not fair Because you know that’s what I desperately want, and you know that’s what makes me a normal, good human, so it’s, it’s not fair if you get the thing that I want so dearly. That’s not nice. If I’m gonna suffer, you have to suffer, too, okay? ‘Cause marriage means we’re a team. There’s no reason why he thinks he should be able to get ahead on his fitness and enjoy his workout. He can take a break. Dude, we’re a team here. But then the second I got better and then he got a little taste of it, I was like, “Dude, I need to go to the gym so bad.”

He just looks at me like, “Uh, okay, and this is fair how?” Okay, the last one that I’m allowed to do but he’s not allowed to do, and that is skip a meal. I don’t know what it is, but when I’m hungry and he says he’s not hungry, I’m like, “You’re not hungry? Okay. Well, good. Congratulations. Good luck keeping your muscle.

Chalene Johnson :[00:17:00] Must be nice to have your appetite under control.” Meanwhile, I’m over here like, “I’ve been thinking about dinner since breakfast,” and now I feel like, what am I, a fatty? Are you trying to, like, tell me something? Because apparently I’m the only person in this marriage that wants to eat? I’m the only person who requires an evening meal? And I’ll be like, “Okay, so do you think that’s good for you?” I can say that. Like, if he’s like, “Do you wanna have dinner?” or, “You wanna have lunch?” I’m like, “Eh, I’m not that hungry.” Like, it’s fine. But when he says it, I’m like, “Uh, are you trying to lose weight or something? Why? Is there some cute girl at the gym or something?

What are you doing? Are you on, like, Ozempic now and I don’t know about it? Are you trying to send me a message?” And also, if you’re not hungry and I am hungry, and you’re the only person who knows how to cook in this relationship, what am I supposed to eat? How am I supposed to survive? Why am I being punished because you’re not hungry? That’s not fair. That’s not right. I would just like to state, for the record, my husband is a saint.

Chalene Johnson :[00:18:00] He should definitely be nominated for, I don’t know, a Nobel Peace Prize. He should get a trophy, an award, a medal, a crown, something, because he really is the OG. He really is remarkable. Of course, he has some of his own things, but they could never be as annoying as mine.

I think he finds it… It gives him purpose to have to wrangle someone and put orange cones up so no one gets killed. I think it keeps him on his toes, and I’m just grateful that we found each other. Like I said, it’s not his birthday. It’s not our anniversary or Father’s Day. It’s not Valentine’s Day. It’s just an opportunity for me to acknowledge how much I appreciate him. And I don’t know, if you are that person in your relationship who’s a little bit hypocritical, maybe a little bit ADHD, a bit of a loose cannon, I think it does go a long way to acknowledge how exacerbating we can be at times and to thank our partners for continuing to love us.

Chalene Johnson :[00:19:00] Allow me to take just a moment to interrupt myself to talk to you about your skin. As we age, one of the things at least that I found most frustrating was just looking down at my skin and going like, “What happened? What is going on?” You know, as we start to lose collagen and estrogen, your skin texture and the way that it holds moisture, it completely changes. I was drenching myself in lotions and just not seeing a difference.

And then I had a friend recommend a product called OneSkin. You’ve heard me talk about it before. This stuff makes a huge difference, so if that’s something you’re struggling with, just skin that feels really dry or crepey, trust me when I say you wanna try OneSkin. I love their full body lotion. It just goes on so nicely. It’s light. There’s no fragrance. There’s no toxic ingredients. That’s very, very important. It works wonderfully for sensitive skin. It’s been dermatologist tested, and th- the stuff is just amazing. It’s loaded with peptides, so you’re just gonna feel a difference. Trust me when I say this.

Chalene Johnson :[00:20:00] But here’s the key. This is my recommendation. This is girlfriend to girlfriend. Get the SPF tinted moisturizer for your face. It is amazing. I’ve tried a bunch of tinted SPFs, and I didn’t feel like they were tinted. Do you know what I mean? Like, this literally kinda smooths out your complexion. You don’t even need to wear makeup, I swear.

I’m saying that, then you know it’s really good. I also love their full body SPF, which is really important if you’re out walking in the sun, or even if you’re just exposed in the snow. You’re still getting exposed to sun, and you wanna make sure that your face stays nice and young. You don’t want age spots or sunspots, and OneSkin has amazing products. Because they are a show sponsor, you get a nice little discount. Go to chalene.com/spf. It’s also a wonderful way to support the show, and I really appreciate that. Again, it’s chalene.com/spf, but you can find all of their products from that link. Check it out

Chalene Johnson : [00:21:00] All right, let’s get to some stories I wanted to discuss.

This first one, Christina Applegate. I know I say I love everything about aging. Not everything, most things about aging. Can I tell you one thing I, I really don’t love? Seeing our icons, like the people who we grew up with on TV, and going like maybe 5 or 10 years, or sometimes even 15 years, without having seen them, and then they show up on a talk show, or I don’t know, maybe I’ll catch a social media story, and I’m just like, “Wait. Wait. They’re like in their 50s now? Oh my God, they’re old.” And then I’m like, “Wait, I’m in my 50s. Wait, I’m about to be 60.” Well, not about, but you know, in a few years. Have you seen Christina Applegate and her story? Obviously, you remember her, Married… with Children, Anchorman, Dead to Me, total bombshell.

Chalene Johnson :[00:22:00] In 2021, you might have seen this, but she announced that she had MS. I mean, it was like devastating. I, I hadn’t seen her, other than Anchorman, in years. And I don’t know if you feel this way, but it’s just… It’s like unsettling sometimes to watch the people that we grew up with deal with serious health problems. I just… I like to think of them as being invincible. What’s the guy’s name that was married to Demi Moore?

Don’t say it. Don’t say… Oh, Bruce Willis. Bruce Willis. I mean, when his family announced that he had dementia, I know this is inevitability for people. They experience conditions just like everybody else, but there’s something about celebrities who we’ve seen in these roles where they’re like superheroes or s- I don’t know, sex symbols. It’s just, it’s hard to see, ’cause in your head, they’re always the age of the show that you watched them in that had the most impact on you, and now you’re seeing this person who you thought was like invincible or a sex symbol icon or a comedian or whatever it is.

Chalene Johnson :[00:23:00] You just see them as being invincible, and then now you see them in a wheelchair. You see them with a cane, or you see them struggling to form words or to sing on stage, and it, it just… I guess it’s because it’s a reminder that life is gonna change for all of us, for everybody. I remember the first time I like looked at my parents and went, “Wait, how-” They’re aging, and it’s a weird thing when you see them all the time, but in your head, even your role models or your parents, you, you can kind of like hold them at the age when they were the strongest and most invincible.

Anyways, back to Christina Applegate. She has a podcast. It’s called Messy, and it was a podcast that she started with Jamie-Lynn Sigler after they both were diagnosed with MS. You remember Jamie-Lynn Sigler? She was on Sopranos. God, that was a good series. Man, that was a good series. We should rewatch that.

Chalene Johnson : [00:24:00] Anyways, back to that. So she just went on the podcast with Jamie-Lynn and said, “Well- I was just told by my doctor, “Congratulations. After five years of living with MS, you don’t have MS.” She said the questions arose after her B cell count didn’t change after she stopped doing some infusion treatment. Like, and I, I don’t know a lot about MS, but you’d think when someone gets that news that they might be relieved, and she’s not, obviously.

And she says now this is even worse news because physically she’s getting worse. Physically, she’s going to therapy three times a week. She still needs a wheelchair. She doesn’t know now what is the cause of her symptoms. And maybe some people are like, “Well, that means that there’s more answers out there.” Maybe, but I’m sure we’ve all been in that situation where you know something’s wrong, but you don’t know what it is. It’s the worst. It’s like I would just rather know.

Chalene Johnson :[00:25:00] It’s like when a woman gets a negative or a questionable result back from a Pap smear. The worst is not knowing. You’re like, “If I just know what this is, then I…” It’s being in that state of ambiguity is horrible, and now she’s basically back at square one. So how does something like that happen? I’m back at square one, that I don’t know what’s going on with me. Whew. Whew, it’s hard to say that she came into my room and she said, “Congratulations, you don’t have MS.”

This is such an emotional thing, right? Yeah, mm-hmm. For me, this is huge, and I’m sure anyone who goes through a misdiagnosis. Some of my friends would… Cried, going, “Congratulations,” and all this stuff, and I’m still here- Yeah, mm-hmm … feeling quite hollow and quite scared and sad, and now I just feel lost. I feel like I let everybody down, you know? No. It’s this weird feeling of like I became, like, this, you know, you and I, the poster children- Yeah … for MS, and- Yeah …

Chalene Johnson : [00:26:00] all that I did for the… Everything that I was doing, I mean, I had- Well, that, but- It’s like I had a reason. I had a reason as to why my day sucked every day, and now I don’t have a reason.

This is a major celebrity. You have to assume she’s got access to the best medical care. Even if she doesn’t have the most insane insurance, she’s got access to a huge network of people. And so when you hear something like this happening to someone so well-connected, so famous- That’s hard. But apparently there isn’t just, like, one single test, I didn’t know this, that proves that you have MS.

Doctors, kind of like fibromyalgia and some other conditions where there isn’t like… For example, perimenopause, there’s no, like, definitive test. They look at symptoms, they look at… I guess it’s not the same. But anyways, with MS, they look at neurological exams, they look at MRI findings, they’ll sometimes do a spinal fluid tap.

Chalene Johnson :[00:27:00] They’ll look at abnormalities in your testing, your MRI, and then they just give you a diagnosis of that. And I learned after reading her story that in 2019, they found that about 18% of patients who were referred to MS clinics had been misdiagnosed. 18%. Many had lived with it for years and, like, were, you know, taking medications and following treatment protocol.

Now, that doesn’t mean everyone who’s diagnosed with MS has a very high likelihood of being misdiagnosed, but when there isn’t a definitive test, it makes sense that those percentages would be higher I’ve talked about myself going to, like, six or seven different clinicians when I was trying to figure out what in the heck was going on with my symptoms related to perimenopause. Not six, m- maybe more like five.

Chalene Johnson :[00:28:00] Sometimes I exaggerate. But here’s the deal. Medicine is complicated. Doctors are human. Knowledge changes. Doctors, especially if they’re working in a healthcare system, they have to see so many patients in a day, it’s unreal. It’s not even realistic. Diagnosises are… Is that the word?

Diagnosises? Diagnosises? They’re complicated, right? And yeah, AI is helping, but if you heard my episode on Wednesday, most of us are… We don’t want an AI diagnosis. We’re not even very happy apparently. I’m happy when my, I know my clinicians are using AI as, like, a tool. I don’t want them relying on it. I like that there’s personal context.

Chalene Johnson :[00:29:00] But I guess it’s just all the more reason we have to really trust our intuition. Haven’t you ever had someone say or a doctor say, like, “Oh, I think this is blah, blah, blah,” and you just thought to yourself, “Mm, I don’t think so. I don’t think that’s what this is.” Like, you’ve got an intuition about your body, and sometimes when we’re confronted by authority, we’re just like, “Oh, I, I shouldn’t listen to my own intuition.”

Well, I think you should, now more than ever. Anyways, I really hope that she gets answers because, you know, she’s just kinda like that’s where it was left hanging. She doesn’t know, and I, I hope she reports back because I’m sure there’s other people. That’s the nice thing about having a platform like she does.

She can help people, and I’m sure that is going to help a lot of people who are like, “Maybe I don’t have MS. Maybe I have to look further.” Speaking of actresses and MS, another story this week in the news, Selma Blair. You know Selma Blair, right? Like, I think she’s maybe, like, 54. So again, another one close to the age range of many of you.

Cruel Intentions, Legally Blonde. In fact, she and Christina Applegate were even in The Sweetest Thing together.

Chalene Johnson :[00:30:00] That’s wild. So she went public in 2018 saying that she had MS, and she’s continued appearing, though, publicly and doing advocacy for different health organizations and just still working despite her health challenges.

But she’s had a few things happen in the news that, I don’t know. So this latest one happened on a Delta flight. I’m sure you’ve heard about it. It was a flight from Los Angeles to New York. This is on the 11th, and what happened afterwards was this, like, huge story. Okay, take a listen.

Clip: [00:30:39] Do you understand, Ms. Blair, yes or no? Overnight, Selma Blair in handcuffs appearing in a New York City courtroom. Charged with a qualifying offense for which she could face significant upstate time if she is convicted of the charges. The actress standing with her lawyer looking sullen hours after authorities said she became physically abusive on a Delta flight from Los Angeles to New York, injuring two flight attendants.

Clip:[00:31:00] Yeah, one flight attendant and one passenger that sustained some minor injuries, a bloody nose, as well as some bite marks as well. The pilot reporting Blair also injured herself. It sounds like the disruptive passenger also bashed her head on the bulkhead. Upon landing at the airport, the 54-year-old star was placed under arrest.

As Blair was taken to the hospital, prosecutors say she removed her leg from the stretcher straps and kicked a police officer repeatedly about the face, neck, and chest. And once at the hospital, prosecutors say Blair kicked a nurse, causing substantial pain to her chest. In court, her lawyers told the judge her conduct was the result of missed medication and a demanding schedule.

Additionally, Your Honor, at one point during the flight, there was an incident where Ms. Blair actually fell and hit her head These factors, Your Honor, coupled with the altitude, resulted in a state of severe confusion and disorientation. Ms. Blair did not get on that plane intending for any of this, Your Honor.

Clip: [00:32:00] Again, this was a medical emergency She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2018, opening up to Robin. When you were first diagnosed, what initially went through your mind? I cried. I had tears. They weren’t tears of panic. They were tears of knowing I now had to give in to a body that had loss of control.

The incident was not Blair’s first on a plane. In 2016, she was removed from a flight by stretcher after what she described as a blackout, for which she apologized and attributed to having mixed alcohol and medication. After this latest incident, Blair was released on $20,000 bail. She is also going to face federal charges over whatever happened on that flight.

Chalene Johnson : [00:32:45] So of course the internet, you know, is doing what the internet does. People are saying, reporting as if, as if they were on the flight, as if they were seated next to her. Now granted, I haven’t seen any clips from people who were actually on the flight, but I’ve, I’ve seen plenty from people who are reporting as if they were.

Chalene Johnson :[00:33:00] And people are saying that, you know, she tried to open an airplane door. People are saying that she punched a flight attendant. In another story they said that she bit a flight attendant. I mean, this is kinda crazy These things happen. Can you imagine being on that flight? And of course, immediately everybody would start saying, “We know who this is.

There’s gotta be footage.” I haven’t seen any. Have you? Anyways, her team denies the door allegation, and the original brief didn’t identify any official source that it was coming from, but the authorities have reported that two flight attendants, in fact, this has been confirmed, did suffer injuries in the confrontation, that some had been taken in- into custody after they landed, and that she had been charged with two counts of assault, one involving an officer and one involving a nurse.

Now, I think that piece is interesting, ’cause listen to what I just said. She’s been charged with assaulting an officer and a nurse.

Chalene Johnson :[00:34:00] They didn’t say she was charged with assaulting four people. Like there was no mention of flight attendants, and I think there would be charges. If you try to open up a, what do you call it, a door in flight, I assume that’s a federal offense.

Like I assume you’re never flying again. You’ve got to go on the no-fly zone, right? Anyways, her team said that she had experienced, quote, “A medical emergency” and didn’t intend to hurt anyone. Then I’m like, but I thought she had MS, so what is the medical emergency? I guess it could be anything. It could be a mental health emergency, but they didn’t say that.

They didn’t say a mental health emergency. I don’t know, maybe it’s just semantics. But they have confirmed that she has a condition called, I’m gonna pronounce this as best that I can, pseudobulbar affect, also known as PBA, and it’s a neurological condition that occurs, and it can occur I guess at a higher rate with people who have MS, and it can cause sudden episodes of crying or sudden episodes of laughing.

Chalene Johnson :[00:35:00] Like ’cause I’m like, wait, well, I have episodes of laughing and crying. Not the same. It’s when they have these episodes, and they don’t match. Like they don’t match the s- like this person should not be laughing right now. They should not be crying right now. I don’t know if that’s had anything to do with the incident, but it sounds like she’s been having a lot of neurological issues.

And the Delta flight, there was another Delta flight incident that happened in 2016 where she had… Her team at the time said that she had mixed alcohol and medication. I can’t remember exactly what happened on that, in that story, but it was just one of those things where you’re like, “Oh, it was a celebrity behaving badly,” and now we realize, oh, she’s probably…

Some neurological things have been going on for more than 10 years. And what I keep thinking about is celebrities are just people. Do you agree the older people get, the more intense their mental hang-ups become?

Chalene Johnson :[00:36:00] Oftentimes their mental health, if left untreated, can get worse, or if they do have conditions, they sometimes degrade further When we age, things happen.

It’s part of the aging process. Humans get MS. Humans get Parkinson’s disease, dementia, and people who are celebrities and well-known are humans, so these things happen to them too. It’s just hard because we confuse these things, but celebrities, people in the public eye, they get sick too. They have embarrassing days.

Sometimes it’s not about aging, sometimes it’s just about h- making a mistake And then going through it publicly, like the whole thing… I know it’s not the same, but like the Kelly Clarkson situation. If you ever had a day where you’re like, “Oh, I probably overreacted to that,” or, “My nerves are a little frayed today. This person, like, you picked the wrong day to piss me off, and I’m usually a much nicer person.”

Chalene Johnson :[00:37:00] And then you can brush it off, or you can go home and think about it and feel like bad about yourself maybe. You know what I mean. But dude, you don’t have that luxury if you are a celebrity. You don’t get to have a moment where you’re human, especially today.
Like, back in the day when there wasn’t social media, yeah, you could probably get away with having a human moment, but not today. No way. It’s just gonna be turned into a spectacle. Strangers are gonna be digging things up. They’re gonna stitch the video. And I’m not saying we should at all excuse any behavior that hurts other people, but I know I started this episode off by talking about what a hypocrite I am with my husband and how much I love him and adore him.

So I wanna extend that topic a little further in this last thing I wanna talk to you about and recognize that, like, there’s been times, especially on my Patreon channel, where I have shared details and the name of another female creator, and I’ve always tried to do so in a way where I’m sharing my perspective, but I’m gonna be much more careful about that and, and here’s why.

Chalene Johnson :[00:38:00] It’s bugging me. It is bugging me to think that we women have been kind of unknowingly pulled into this… It’s like misogyny, where women are baited into criticizing and taking down other women, and it really serves no purpose. It doesn’t help our cause. It doesn’t help any of us feel better. And the reason why I’m thinking about this is I was formerly subscribed to a YouTube channel of a female creator who’s a, a former journalist, and she’s, like, our age.

I’m not gonna give you too many details ’cause I’m not gonna take her down. But I will say she’s got chops. She was a writer for Vanity Fair, the New York Post, Daily Mail. She’s great, and she’s funny, and she’s witty. And I tuned into a couple of her episodes, and I ended up subscribing to her channel. But then the last, like, four or five times, ’cause I’m subscribed, I go onto YouTube and her channel pops up, and I’m just gonna admit that I get sucked in by the title.

Chalene Johnson :[00:39:00] The title is clickbaity. The title is something negative about another woman, and I’m questioning my own motives that I even click on it And the last couple times I’ve done so, I felt dirty and ashamed, and I unsubscribed. And everybody’s entitled to create whatever type of content they want. I just want to bring awareness to the fact…

Like today, the episode that I accidentally clicked on, or got sucked into and clicked on, was something really not very nice about Celine Dion questioning her health and almost like demanding that Celine Dion explain why she was so sick before and why she seems to be doing so much better. And I thought, “What purpose does this serve? Why do we do this? What does it say about us when we wanna consume that kind of content?” The same thing is true, like Mel Robbins right now is really crushing it.

Chalene Johnson :[00:40:00] When a woman starts to climb to the top, when she has a rise in her fame and people start to talk about her and they’re getting all the podcast interviews and you’re seeing all the clips, it triggers jealousy in other women, which means making negative content about this person is going to do very well.

That content is going to perform very well, and it becomes almost a clickbait. Then we start watching it, and then the people who make that content, they get rewarded, they get paid, they get views. Their popularity grows because why? Because negative content is… It performs well. We wanna hear bad things about people who are doing well.

For whatever reason, it makes us feel better about ourselves or something. But I just think this negative content about other people’s methods or, like, just suddenly making all this negative content about a woman because she’s making money or she did make money, and any woman who makes money is therefore a grift.

Who can you think of?

Chalene Johnson :[00:41:00] Name a woman who’s been uber successful And made a lot of money in any industry who hasn’t been dragged through the mud and called a grift or had negative content made about them. And I think there’s a way, in my opinion, to share your opinion and to share your take on something.

Again, not gonna name names because it was a woman making this content about Mel Robbins. And by the way, the woman who was making the content about Mel Robbins has a professional background that would really be interesting to understand her breaking down what Mel is doing in terms of her marketing.

But instead it turned into, like, name-calling, just kind of gross and allegations. And I thought, “Why do you have to get dirty? Why get muddy? Like, you actually have the experience and the chops to be able to break down an interesting topic without having to tear down another woman.” And while I was listening to this content, it made me realize there’s probably been times I’ve been guilty of that.

Chalene Johnson :[00:42:00] And when I’m listening to somebody else do it, it’s off-putting. And I think it’s one thing to do that with your girlfriends, but to do it on a podcast, to do it on a YouTube video, it’s just unnecessary. It doesn’t elevate either person. What’s that phrase? Like when you roll in the mud with a pig, you both get dirty.

Something like that. I don’t know. But the way we talk about somebody else publicly, oftentimes it says a lot more about the person who’s doing the, the gossiping and the speculating than it does the person who they’re speculating about. I think there’s a way to do it. Like, obviously we wanna hear about celebrities, we wanna hear about influencers, we wanna know about people who have had great success, and there’s always gonna be an interest in gossip, always.

And there’s always gonna be an interest in taking other people down because we’re insecure, because we’re humans, because, like I said, for some reason it momentarily might make you feel a little better about your life. But one thing you will rarely hear is a very successful woman making tear-down content about someone who’s less successful than her.

Chalene Johnson :[00:43:00] And I can only think of one example of a very, very uber successful woman who has no problem taking down a woman who is much smaller, is just getting started, new content creator, what have you. She has no problem doing that, and I’ll tell you why. ‘Cause she’s not a girls girl. She just needs to be on top.

So it comes from a place of insecurity, and secure women don’t do that. You don’t have to do that. There’s so many cool ways to be able to share your opinion and your perspective. Let people draw their own opinions. I don’t know if it’s age or wisdom or just self-reflection, some of the therapy that I’m doing, but I just think we are buying into misogyny and we’re calling it being smart enough to see through people’s
But aren’t we then becoming a part of the ?

Chalene Johnson :[00:44:00] Why are we training each other to be suspicious of other women, to be suspicious of women who are successful, to be suspicious of women who seem too confident? To be critical of a woman because of anything she’s made a choice to do with her own body, with her own life.

Why are we being pulled into that? And again, I’m saying I’ve gotta be better in this area, too. I’m a consumer of it, and I’m not gonna click. Like, something has changed where it doesn’t feel right when I watch that content. Again, if it’s someone who o- has a unique perspective, okay, I can learn something from it, but just tearing another person down, a woman, tearing another woman down, that in particular, I just need to be more aware of it, and I’m inviting you to do the same because it’s so much cooler to compliment each other, to see each other’s greatness, to be kind to each other.

Chalene Johnson :[00:45:00] Yesterday, I approached a woman at the gym, tapped her on the shoulder, and said, “I just wanted to let you know, I am in awe of how strong your legs are. They’re just absolutely beautiful and so inspirational. I’m watching you lift. You’ve got great form, and I just wanted to say, like, noted.” And she got tears in her eyes.

She was like, “Are you serious?” I’m like, “Dude, I can’t be the first person who’s ever told you this. These are just, like… Your legs are so strong and so perfect. Uh, anyways, just, you know, keep up the great work.” And she was, like, so touched by that. And sometimes that might not have gone that way.

She might have thought that was weird.

I’m just at a stage in my life where I really want women to understand when we come together as a community, we need each other. We need girlfriends as medicine, and not just the ones that you know. We need to be more connected. We need to realize that we’re on the same team. We need to realize we can get a lot further along and, and it can be so much more enjoyable when we realize the women around us support us, and they have our back, and we’re not worried about, like, are they gonna try to take me down?

Chalene Johnson :[00:46:00] It’s the whole reason why I created Camp Be More, and I just wanna invite you and explain to you just for a second, if what I’ve just said resonates, then that’s where you need to be, and I wanna invite you to be there. And I don’t want women to come who aren’t ready to do that. And I think this is why so many women end up showing up to this event by themselves, because they just don’t have that in their lives.

They don’t have those women around them, and they come to camp to meet and be surrounded by and inspired by, and… other women who are like this, and to make lifelong friendships, and to have the conversations, the deep conversations that they’ve been longing for. And when I first created Camp Be More, I didn’t know w- exactly what I wanted it to be.

I knew that we would talk about hormones, but it’s turned out to be so much more than that. It’s for a type of woman.

Chalene Johnson :[00:47:00] It’s for a woman who’s like- She is ready to make a decision. She’s ready to own her freedom to lift other women up, to be supported, to stop questioning herself, to stop putting other women down and judging them, to, like, be the healthy, strong, attractive, independent person that she’s always wanted to be and to attract those kind of people to her.

She wants to go deeper with her relationships. She wants to figure out her new stage in life. She wants financial freedom. She wants security. She wants independence. She wants to be done asking for permission and have a ton of fun doing it. So maybe this is your sign. Maybe you went year one, maybe didn’t get to make it last year.

Maybe you’ve been hearing about it and thinking, “Oh, something I should do for myself.” Yes, stop saying, “I think I should do that,” and just get yourself registered. Take action. Be that woman. We’re looking for you. We’re waiting for you. CampBmore.com.

Chalene Johnson :[00:48:00] We’re in Las Vegas this year. It’ll be in the spring. Don’t ask me what the dates are, ’cause I should have them memorized, but I’m not reading an ad to you right now.

I’m just speaking from my heart. I think it’s in the middle of April. Yeah. Check it out. CampBemore.com. Wherever you’re listening, drop a comment below and let me know that today’s the day you made that decision, and we’ll actually see you there. Lots of personal stuff coming your way on Patreon tomorrow.

So don’t forget to wake up early, open up your app, and download the latest installment of behind the scenes, what’s going on in the Johnson household. We have houseguests and a lot of things I have to catch you up on since last week. All right, I love you. I mean it. I’ll talk to you soon.