Brooke Shields: What period or moment in your life brought you the most joy?

The question

What period or moment in your life brought you the most joy?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

Asked in 52 of the 131 consecutive instalments of The Guardian's The Q&A harvested on 2026-08-29.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Brooke Shields

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

On a beach, watching my girls do cartwheels, with a Goombay Smash with a floater on top.

Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, February 2025 source ↗

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Philippa Dunne

Any time I’m in rehearsals.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 June 2026 source ↗

Richard Coles British musician, writer, presenter and priest

Technically, Ibiza 1990, because of the amount of ecstasy I’d taken.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 June 2023 source ↗

Tony Robinson British actor

At my wedding in Ravello, surrounded by friends and relatives.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 March 2013 source ↗

Adeel Akhtar British actor

At boarding school, I was unable to get the main part in Hamlet, so I put on a production of The Homecoming with my friends. The teachers came to see it and said they didn’t know I had it in me. It felt very good.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 May 2018 source ↗

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Question Which quality in your friends matters most to you? Relationships

Humor. Laughing with my girlfriends is one of my great joys.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 18 February 2025 source ↗

Question What do you fear most? Identity & self

Drowning. The feeling of not being able to take a breath. I’m sure my therapist would have something to say about the deep psychological reasons for it.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, February 2025 source ↗

Question If you could alter one thing about yourself, what would it be? Identity & self

I would erase my fear of dying, but I suppose that would be erasing some of my human condition.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 18 February 2025 source ↗

Question What does happiness look like for you when life is going well? Identity & self

Watching my girls laugh together. It is more short-lived than I’d like, but it does happen!

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 18 February 2025 source ↗

Question Who alive today do you admire most, and what draws you to them? Values & belief

Gloria Steinem.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, February 2025 source ↗

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