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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that Julie Burchill must be a bit horrible.

72 replies

StuckForAUserName · 11/02/2013 17:39

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2276906/Julie-Burchill-admits-reckless-leave-child-sorry-ending-marriage-Tony-Parsons.html

Her poor son.

OP posts:
FellatioNels0n · 11/02/2013 18:28

Hmm. Yes, I agree. she always shows integrity. She's honest and true to herself, for sure. But she sounds fucking awful.

Chottie · 11/02/2013 18:32

Not keen on her. She tries so hard to be unconventional.

p.s. her voice sounds so awful........

greencolorpack · 11/02/2013 18:37

Really difficult listening on Desert Island Disks! She's like a real live Vicky pollard, "yer but no but yer but I didn't regret taking drugs but yer but no but shut up!!!!". I only knew of her from Toby Youngs book where he mentions her,never read her articles before so came at the subject fresh. The Po faced Kirsty Young was funny trying to get her to say she regretted taking drugs. Then I thought the questions about walking out on two sons and two husbands were really intrusive and out of order. But Julie B herself was quite strange in her responses. She seemed emotionally unaware To say the least.

ThatBintAgain · 11/02/2013 18:42

I imagine her poor son felt like shit hearing that. Having been in a similar situation myself it really doesn't feel great that a parent can take a decision like (with all its far reaching effects and consequences) and then say they have no regrets. And I say parent as it's shit whoever says it, male or female.

greencolorpack · 11/02/2013 19:15

Agreed thatBintAgain.

Her poor sons, and especially I wonder about people like that who have loving caring mothers themselves, you think "wouldn't you want to be like that for your own boys?". She was beloved by her own parents but didn't try to be the same for her own children.

Original poster
StuckForAUserName · 11/02/2013 19:19

Male or female is not the issue. The issue is IMO 'I don't regret abandoning my son'. That is horrible whatever way you want to look at it surely.

OP posts:
GettingObsessive · 11/02/2013 19:22

Chottie that was my main reason for switching off. I probably could have taken the whiny teenage attitude a bit longer if it hadn't been for that voice. I know she can't help it, but still.

Original poster
StuckForAUserName · 11/02/2013 19:23

Those that say 'good for her, she knew childrearing was not what she wanted to do, she was honest' well what about the damage to the DC? No regrets huh?

OP posts:
ubik · 11/02/2013 19:25

i thought her choice of music was dreadful

anonacfr · 11/02/2013 19:25

I agree. I'm also shocked to hear that she married her lover's brother! That's just not on IMO.

Pandemoniaa · 11/02/2013 19:26

She might have shown a rare honesty about leaving her son but she remains a charmless, self-obsessed piece of work. I have encountered her several times in rl and still recall a very amusing evening when she threw a "Don't you peasants know who I am" sqwarky strop in a well known club somewhere on the South Coast.

Odious does her a kindness.

chandellina · 11/02/2013 19:28

JB is on par with Liz Jones. Even if you only know a little about them, it's sufficient to know you don't want to know anything more.

ubik · 11/02/2013 19:33

oh and the 'working class' thing

it's so sentimental

Dawndonna · 11/02/2013 19:35

Yeah, Burchill's integrity. 'I have been to the university of life, I don't need a degree to prove anything'. Off she pops to uni. Then there was the let's be a Lesbian for a bit because it's different.
Julie Birchill is the epitome of boorish behaviour.

Daddelion · 11/02/2013 19:42

I could be wrong, but I didn't think she'd been to university?

thebody · 11/02/2013 19:49

How boring are middle aged adults like this who persist in acting like really young teens and still try to 'shock' when they quite frankly are far far too old to be doing this.

Yawn yawn. Her son was better off without her.

Sad old bag.

anonacfr · 11/02/2013 19:52

Why is 'honesty' considered such a great quality? It's usually a license to pile insults on others.
Would you tell an ugly neighbour/acquaintance that they're ugly to their face (random example)?Honesty is often just rudeness with a 'brave' veneer.

Basically she's telling her five year old firstborn that he wasn't important to her. I'm sure he really appreciates her honesty.

PuffPants · 11/02/2013 19:57

Based on the little I have read, she writes like a teenager and has nothing to say worth reading. I was gobsmacked the first time I heard her speak - that voice!

Unsure how she had had such a longevity career-wise.

coldcupoftea · 11/02/2013 19:58

She said she didn't regret leaving the marriage, not her son! And she didn't abandon him, it's not like she left him in a doorway, he was with a loving parent in his family home.

I'm sure it's devastating for all concerned when a family breaks up, but I agree when it is a male celebrity it is a non-event. Chris Evans walked out on his first child, now he comes across all family man on his radio show.

MorrisZapp · 11/02/2013 20:04

Bloody good point about Chris Evans. I detest JB for myriad reasons but I can't get behind slating a woman for doing something that men do without drawing comment.

anonacfr · 11/02/2013 20:06

She said she was leaving with her lover and had no money and no place to stay.
As her son was settled she thought she would leave him where he was and then come back for him, but in the end never came back.

Not an easy thing to hear from any parent.

MixedClassBaby · 11/02/2013 20:11

Who cares what her voice sounds like? She comes across as pretty chaotic and self obsessed but she's so indulgent it's hilarious. I burst out laughing when the interview went from her giving away loads of money to setting up a donkey sanctuary. Like a real life Edina from Ab Fab. I bet she could be a scream on a night out but best enjoyed from a distance.

thebody · 11/02/2013 20:15

I think any parent who walks out on their child with a lover is vile whether they have a penis or a vagina.

AllYoursBabooshka · 11/02/2013 20:26

Basically she's telling her five year old firstborn that he wasn't important to her. I'm sure he really appreciates her honesty.

I think it's a hell of a lot better to say "Yes I fucked up and could have done better by you" instead of making up something because it's what people want to hear.

His Father will have told him exactly what happened and she can't change it.

If I were her son I would want to know the truth and make my own mind up about it (which he clearly has), rather than have a mother who left me then lied about it. Insult to injury IMO.

MiniTheMinx · 11/02/2013 20:28

I'm sure she probably felt she was doing the right thing. Having heard her speak, I think she probably did the right thing

She is full of dichotomies. She likes a bun fight.....she appreciates her very calm husband and on it goes.......She doesn't care but she can't go back to Bristol because it might upset her. She courts attention but prefers her own company.

She either has some form of personality disorder or she is just disingenuous and false.