Come, Abedin urged her.
It would be Gregoire Trudeaus kind of crowdactivists and journalists, a podcast guru or two.
Clinton herself would make an appearance during cocktail hour to toast womens leadership.
READ ALL OVERGrégoire Trudeau’s memoir,Closer Together,will be published in April. Hermès dress. Stuart Weitzman shoes.Sittings Editor: Tonne Goodman.
Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of California governor Gavin Newsom, would be there.
Like them, Gregoire Trudeau had once been a political spouse.
Now she was something else.
Gregoire Trudeau could simply accept Abedins invitation, and spend her New York weekend as she pleased.
She goes, Sure!
No matter that Gregoire Trudeau was in a pantsuit, nor that Abedin was wearing tweed.
Bouncers waved them in.
The room was so thronged with bodies in cutout dresses that Abedin soon lost track of her friend.
I was panicking, Abedin says.
Twelve weeks prior, Gregoire Trudeau had been among the most recognizable de facto first ladies on the planet.
Michelle Obama had once called her a soulmate.
Now she had gone missing?
The two had folded themselves into the back seat of a pedicab and were rocketing uptown.
Wrapped in a blanket of indeterminate cleanliness, Gregoire Trudeau tapped out: Were cozy and happy!
It was 2 a.m.
Weeks later, Gregoire Trudeauwhose normal bedtime is a respectable 10:30 p.m.is laughing as she recounts the misadventure.
Theroux was a fine host.
But when Sophie Gregoire Trudeau wants out, theres no stopping her.
Im like a wild horse in a stall, she explains.
Sometimes I just want to run in a field.
It is known for government functions and not much else.
She does not get beaten to the punch.
She peeks at our feet and smiles.
Rookie mistake: I had worn loafers.
She wrote it at the dinner table and at her desk.
She wrote it on her iPad with the children at her elbow.
Never mind if I liked it.
This lapsed perfectionist wants to know: Did I notice the lone spelling mistake she failed to catch?
All of whom are still swirling around in her brain.
The stated aim ofCloser Togetheris to guide readers toward self-knowledge, acceptance, and empowerment.
Its at least as much an attempt to understand and fiddle with her own emotional hard-wiring.
Without siblings, other relationships took on almost spiritual significance.
Her friendships felt fated; her cousins gave her a tribe.
She was 17 when it started.
She didnt get help until she confided in her mother after a gruesome night of purging.
That moment for me was filled with fragility, fear, trembling, she says.
She started working in advertising, a field she happily admits she knew nothing about.
(She was hired.)
Then came a job in PR.
She was a glorified closed-captionist, but she loved it.
TV and radio thrilled her, even if the freelance nature of the work was less exhilarating.
She spent 18 months as a personal shopper between contracts.
She crossed paths with Trudeau around the same time.
She and Trudeau were asked to cohost the same event in 2003, and they reconnected.
She emailed after, but he didnt respond.
He could find it if he wanted to reach her, she told him.
They were married in 2005.
Trudeau had been a teacher, but politics beckoned as a kind of inheritance.
It was in this period that Justin and Sophies two oldest children were born.
Her mentor Barrie Risman recalls how Gregoire Trudeau brought Trudeau with her to Rismans studio in Montreal.
I would love to teach a lot of them yoga, she says.
In 2015, Trudeau was elected prime minister.
I have three children and a husband who is prime minister, Gregoire Trudeau said at the time.
I need a team to help me serve people.
On social media, the hashtag #PrayforSophie drew lacerating criticism.
In part, the disapproval reflected that quirk of the Canadian political apparatus.
There is no East Wing equivalent in Ottawa.
Gregoire Trudeau had had to give up her career when Trudeau became prime minister.
Her cousin still bristles at the warped expectations.
Justin Trudeau had been heralded as a champion of working women.
When his own wife wanted to contribute, she was pilloried.
His ascent cost her her profession.
She was put in an impossible position, a Canadian journalist tells me.
She was just stuck.
The uproar shocked Gregoire Trudeau, too.
It was like, Really?
She has since made her peace with what happened.
You do what you want with that nonofficial title, she continues.
I already had a connection with the public, and Im not naive.
But heres what Ive realized: There is life, and then theres what you read in the media.
When I travel the country, I get love and support.
Gregoire Trudeau doesnt call the outrage sexist, but those close to her do.
This isnt some high-minded feminist theorizing.
Its a simple fact: He wouldnt have been able to become prime minister without her.
Trudeau was reelected in October 2019.
The pandemic broke out less than six months later.
Tom Hanks became one of the most famous people to fall ill on March 11.
Gregoire Trudeau announced that she had contracted the virus 48 hours later.
Gregoire Trudeau remains convinced she contracted it at a food court.)
The government started operating out of Rideau Cottage, the prime ministers residence.
Trudeau passed a slew of COVID measures, some more popular than others.
Gregoire Trudeau had friends who were furious about the government response.
We werent all reacting the same way, she says.
And so many people were directing their anger at the person who was holding office.
Over those tense months, Gregoire Trudeau watched several of her own relationships fracture.
We had real arguments, she says.
When the pandemic receded, Trudeau won a third term, but the mood was grim.
An anti-vaccine protest trundled across Canada and converged on Ottawa.
No wonder Gregoire Trudeau started working on a book about resilience.
The Canadian doctor and trauma expert Gabor Mate met her around that time.
He left with the keen impression that she was chafing at the bit.
She wanted to be herself and to be free and not to be constrained.
In our conversation, Gregoire Trudeau sidesteps timelines and breaking points.
It was public knowledge that she and Trudeau saw a couples therapist.
In his own memoir in 2014, Trudeau alluded to difficult ups and downs in their marriage.
Is it his fault?
She summons a notion borrowed from therapist Perel.
So many people have been trained to end a relationship before questioning its structure, Gregoire Trudeau says.
This is a sign of our emotional and relational immaturity.
Its still black or white, married or divorced.
But the modern family is reorganizing.
And what is a breakup if not a reorg?
For what its worth, Gregoire Trudeau continues to believe in long-term relationships and perseverance.
Still, its not all Zen acceptance.
Gregoire Trudeau struggles, too.
I think it hurts me for the kids, she says.
She worries about the emotional heritage that shes passing down to them.
So far, she has eased through the transition as best as she can.
Gregoire Trudeau continues to live part-time in Rideau Cottage.
She has her own little place as well, she explains, not too far from the compound.
In the immediate aftermath of the announcement, the Trudeaus went on summer vacation together.
Christmas was spent as a unit, too.
We dont even have a parental sharing plan, Gregoire Trudeau admits.
The realities of Trudeaus job require a flexible arrangement.
We go along with the kids schedules, and we keep each other posted.
There will be no clean break, which is how she wants it.
you might heal without hatred, without division, without blame, she says.
Im not perfect, she adds.
It takes two to tango, and I think we both acknowledge that.
In the hours we spend together, Gregoire Trudeau tears up at least four times.
She keeps her emotions close to the surface, where she can reach for them.
Sometimes she has no filter, says Sacha Laliberte, a director in Montreal.
He and Gregoire Trudeau went out on a few dates in their 20s before deciding to be friends.
It turned out to be a good bet.
The relationship has endured.
He shrugs now: I believed her.
Shes glamorous and amazing and fabulous, but shes also kind of weird.
Thats one of the things I love about Sophie.
She is a true original.
Gregoire Trudeau has put her stamp on the residence.
The kids drawings paper the walls.
One former overnight guest confirms that Gregoire Trudeau convinced her to take a cold plunge at 11 p.m.
The paddleboards and canoes beckoned.
A glass of wine helped her make the case.
Her children joke that her motto is a cheerful Safety last!
When she refers to their father as very intrepid, its said with a rush of affection.
Long before the separation, Gregoire Trudeau rode around Ottawa on a Vespa.
At least once, Gregoire Trudeau has coached her through breathing exercises over the phone.
I do think she and I had that connection of, I know what thats like, says Abedin.
And then to branch out on your ownit does feel like a whole new life.
What she did was courageous.
In the wake of the separation, rumors spread that Gregoire Trudeau was already in another relationship.
I am much less interested in gossip than I was as a teenager.
Gregoire Trudeau insists she doesnt see herself any differently now than she did before the announcement.
I see my situation differently, she says.
I cant say Ive resolved all of that.
She has settled on paths as a metaphor for the sustained relationship she hopes to have with Trudeau.
Instead of having the same path, its parallel paths, she says.
Parallel paths while having a family is possible when theres love and respect.
you could still nourish each other in different ways.
Its a perspective she could only fully arrive at after their legal framework was settled.
And of course, the law is there to protect the vulnerable, and its very important.
But theres no philosophical component in there that asks us to slow down.
What is the future ofcarefor one another?
In 2025, Trudeau will be up for reelection.
The two share the same values.
He is her candidateand her ex.
Would she hit the trail for him?
I am concerned and acutely interested in our future, she replies after a tiny pause.
But then again, I can only do what I can to help.
I know how I can give, and thats what Im going to focus on.
On the cover ofCloser Together,her name is printed as Sophie Gregoire Trudeau.
In the past, some news outlets have dropped Gregoire altogether or combined Gregoire and Trudeau with a hyphen.
She never changed her name when she married, so its all convention.
But then she decides that such matters of existential reckoning are her call.
She blesses the double-barreled last name.
When shes dressed up, she knows she looks familiar.
Sometimes Id be asked if I was Trudeaus wife, Gregoire Trudeau writes.
She learned to respond with a disarming smile: Im Sophie.
Hair, Marilisa Sears; Makeup, Jodi Urichuk.
Produced by PLUTINO GROUP.
Set Design: Christine Brant.
