Fay Ripley
English actress, television presenter, cookbook author
Donny Osmond’s wife. Still do.
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
What would you like to be remembered for?
Death & what remains
Question
What song would you like played at your funeral?
Death & what remains
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
I wanted to be a cooker. Not a cook: I wanted to actually be the stove.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 March 2019 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 191 →
Oti Mabuse
South African dancer
A paediatrician, then I was like, I can’t dissect frogs! Then I fell in love with making things and understanding how things work.
Emma Barnett
British broadcaster and journalist
A fishmonger, then a surgeon.
Kate Mosse
English writer
First I wanted to be in the circus, then a tap dancer, then prime minister. I have failed at all three.
More from Adwoa Aboah
View profile →Nothing. Everything’s got me to this point and I had to learn lots of things. Maybe I just wouldn’t have been so terrified all the time and I would have got up a bit earlier – I missed quite a few mornings.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – everything she writes speaks to me. Her Ted talk, We Should All Be Feminists, inspired everything I do with Gurls Talk.
They are already things I work on: routine and less sugar.
On a walking safari in the middle of the Kenyan bush. I had no phone, no mirror, nothing, and I was really happy because I had no distractions.
For persevering, and being a good role model.
The whole of The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill.
More on identity & self
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Adam Clayton, Adrian Edmondson, Aidan Gillen, Alex Hassell, Alison Moyet, Andrea Bocelli
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