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Marie Osmond: An Audience With…

An Audience with Donny & Marie airs on ITV1 on Wednesday in front of a host of UK celebrities. Vegas shows and an album release, but there’s a side to Marie Osmond that’s less showbiz than her toothy smile, incredible legs and singing talents. It’s a story of Motherhood.

She was 50 last month. She says: ‘Still, I’d rather be 50 than pregnant.’

Marie Osmond is currently a single mother to eight; Four boys and four girls, three of them her offspring, five adopted.

Stephen Craig was her husband back in 1982 and she gave birth to a son, also Stephen, the following year. In 1984 the couple divorced, with husband Stephen admitting that he hadn’t been ready for marriage or fatherhood.

Two years later, Marie married record producer Brian Blosil but doctors had told her that she might have trouble conceiving so, in 1987, the couple adopted their first child, Jessica.

As it happens, she conceived naturally in 1989 when daughter Rachael was born. Sons Michael and Brandon were adopted in 1991 and 1997 respectively, followed by daughter Brianna in 1998.

Then baby Matthew arrived naturally the following year, with little Abigail being adopted three years later in 2002. But the mother of eight makes no distinction between any of her children.

“God had a plan. I didn’t find those children. They found me. I really believe that. And anybody who has adopted will tell you the same. There is absolutely no difference in what I feel for any of my kids.’”

But the birth of Matthew in 1999 was to prove the catalyst for so much of what was to follow.

“I’d had the baby blues before,” says Marie, “but this was different.”

Unable to summon the energy some mornings to climb out from under the duvet, she was at a loss to understand what had taken hold of her.

One day, Marie Osmond snapped; “I remember walking down the stairs and putting Matthew in the arms of the nanny. “I can’t stay here,” I told her. “There is something wrong, really wrong with me. I have to leave until I figure it out.”"

This was ten years ago. “I turned away from her, away from my precious baby, away from my life and walked out of the door. I have no idea how my feet carried me to the car.

“When I switched on the engine, something overpowering moved inside of me, something from the deepest part of my soul. My body was racked with hysterical crying and I began to understand for the first time why a person would want to take their own life.”

Catatonic with grief, she drove 250 miles up the Californian coast and checked into a motel.

“In the end, Brian found me via the mobile my eldest son had left in the car from the previous night. It had kept ringing and eventually I’d answered it.”

Husband Brian told her he’d be there as fast as he could. The next call came from the Osmond family mother and matriarch, Olive.

Marie said her mother had empathised with her, Olive said: “I’m going to tell you something I’ve never told anyone,” said my mother. “I went through exactly the same thing when I had my last child.” Her mother had also known the severity of post-natal depression.’

Marie was prescribed a course of pills and with the show-must-go-on attitude drummed into all nine Osmonds and the help of a trusted therapist, Marie began to pull her life back together.

She looked after her mother when she became ill and was effectively paralysed from the neck down.

“I nursed her to her death on Mother’s Day in 2004 and I helped with my father until he died three years later in the middle of my stint on Dancing With The Stars.”

Marie nonetheless finished third in the contest.

Slowly, though, it began to dawn on Marie that her depression hadn’t simply been caused by the fact that her mind and body had effectively shut down.

“It hadn’t been easy growing up in the music industry in the Seventies,” she says, “and for two reasons. Not only was I a girl, but I was the only female Osmond. I felt a huge pressure on all sides.”

And then there was the revelation only released to the public in her book, “Behind The Smile” the long-suppressed memories of the sexual abuse she’d suffered during her formative years. She has remained resolute refusing to name her abusers, who were outside of the family circle.

Again, therapy proved invaluable in facing those demons. But she wasn’t yet out of the woods. “Gradually, I came to the sad but inescapable conclusion that something was essentially wrong with my marriage.

Her brother Jimmy was an anchor for her through this time: “When your children start telling you to leave, it’s time to go. It was an unbelievably tough decision, though. Jimmy’s the one who saved my life,’ she says, with tears in her eyes.

“When I went through the whole mess, he not only took me under his wing, he carried me financially while my assets were frozen.

“I was so beaten down by then. I’d been told [by Brian] that my career was all washed up, that my voice was anyway average at best. My self-esteem was on the floor. Jimmy turned to me one day and simply said: “I want my sister back.” He’s an angel.”

The idea of teaming up with brother Donny again came at just the right time. “We knew we’d inevitably get back together one day. And moving from Utah to Las Vegas has given the children new stability.’” Nonetheless, those children have sometimes put their mother through difficult and trying times.

She says though that this is true of all families. In 2006, daughters Jessica and Rachael were caught indulging in internet sex, posting messages online revealing how much they enjoyed sex and were open to offers.

Marie - and this must have been particularly tough for someone born and raised as a Mormon - said she was “saddened” by their actions. “But, if my celebrity is good for anything, let it be as a voice of warning to other parents to become more knowledgeable about what our children get up to.”

The next year, adopted son Michael, then 16, spent a spell in rehab. Whether for drink or drugs has never been made clear.

Last June, Jessica came out as lesbian, the reaction in the downmarket U.S. tabloids being that her mother, a woman who turned down the role of Sandy in Grease because she disapproved of the film’s moral content, would turn her back on her daughter, because Mormons don’t recognise same-sex relationships.

To her credit, Marie went on public record in support of Jessica. “When it comes to marriage,” she said at the time, “I think civil rights need to apply to everyone whatever their gender and orientation.”

She say’s now, “Anyway, He wouldn’t be much of a caring God, would He, if He put anything above love? Nothing is more precious to me than my children.”

For the thoroughly sorted, born again, Marie Osmond, there’s no time now, she says, for men. “I did date last year, but there’s no one at the moment. I do get hit on, though, by younger guys, which is kind of flattering.”

“Right now, I don’t call it the menopause. I call it men-on-pause. Anyway, I’m too busy.”

         

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Mother Falls To Death After Not Being Able To Breastfeed

An Inquest ruled an open verdict death this Friday on the death of a mother who was depressed after not being able to breast feed.

Katy Isden, 30, had been seen on CCTV footage taking a lift to the top of a 20 floor building onto the roof. She had then been seen on another video tape falling 300ft (92m) to her death last November.

The inquest had been told that the new mother had suffered from post natal depression four months after having her son, Benjamin. It is believed the depression had been due to her having trouble with breast feeding her baby.

Mrs Isden, who worked as a teacher had left the UK in 2007. She had been living with her husband James, 31 in the 14th floor of the New York apartment where she had fallen.

Geraint Williams, Coroner for Worchestershire, read from a statement: “Mr Isden called 911 after seeing his wife on the ground outside the apartments where they lived.
“He called police and said he thought his wife had fallen but he couldn’t be sure whether it was her or not.”

“He said she was upset nursing the child and had an appointment to see the lactation nurse that morning.
“She had seemed depressed about the feeding difficulties but had sought no help about that”, Mr Williams had read.

Her parents told the inquest that their daughter had seemed distressed and very unhappy. Mrs Isden’s mother had been planning to visit her daughter, but had arrived just after the incident had happened.

In the apartment, a note had been left to her mother saying: ‘I have an appointment [with the nurse] at 11.30am, I will see you when I get back’.”

No alcohol or drugs had been found in her body, and Mr Williams had recorded an open verdict as they had been unable to show whether she had fallen or jumped.

         

Mothers of Multiple Births Have An Increased Risk of Baby Blues

A survey shows that mothers of twins and triplets have a greater risk of getting postpartum depression.

A new study has shown that mothers who give birth to multiple babies, have twice the risk of getting the baby blues or postpartum depression. It was shown that mothers of twins or triplets were more exhausted and took care of themselves less, which led them to develop the baby blues more easily. Even though they have more than one baby, they seem to get no more help than mothers with one baby at a time.

The Twins and Multiple Births Association (Tamba) surveyed approximately 1400 multiple birth mothers and found out that 17% of those moms suffered from some sort of post natal depression. This is almost double the rate of what single birth mothers have reported.

Maggie Couston, a psychologist and mother of triplets, said: “The months after my triplets’ birth should have been a joyful experience but instead I felt exhausted and isolated.”  She goes on to say, “My babies were the most precious thing in the world to me but I thought I wasn’t good enough for them and frequently thought of ending things or walking away.”

According to the researchers, simple things like parent education classes and providing support to the mother in the first few weeks after birth can dramatically help a new mother not suffer from severe postpartum depression.

         

Joanne Mallinder jailed for killing baby

Joanne Mallinder, 37, a mother with post-natal depression has received a sentence of four years in jail for killing her baby by shaking him in a, “Desperately sad case”.

Mallinder from Essex, shook her baby Jack, only three months old, causing brain damage in February 2006, dying 13 months later.

Judge Philip Clegg sentenced Mallinder saying it was a, “Desperately sad case”. “It would seem that you must have pulled the child violently from his car seat by his right arm and then gone on to shake him violently. It’s also quite apparent that you immediately realised what you had done and did everything you could to help revive the child. Nobody could have been more devastated by what happened.”

Jack had suffered six fractures to his arms and legs it was revealed in the Post-Morten.

Judge Clegg said that the injuries had, “Extended beyond those normally associated with baby shaking, thus indicating a considerable amount of force”.

Mallinder had previously had to contend with one stillborn and 13 miscarriages, an eating disorder and a drinking problem.

Joanne Mallinder, had no previous convictions, had suffered from post-natal depression and in her defence Sally O’Neill QC said baby Jack had suffered the injuries during a “15-minute episode”, described as, “An immediate and inexplicable loss of control”.

         

Cute Babies - Only a woman knows

Females are much better at identifying a cute baby than men, according to University of St Andrews research released on Wednesday.Psychologists at the University used computer image manipulation to produce very subtle variations in baby faces.

They discovered that women could distinguish a “cute” baby — chubby cheeks, large forehead, big round eyes and button nose — far more easily than men, who struggled to spot the difference.

The researchers believe that cuteness sensitivity may be down to female hormones.

“We found that young women between 19-26 and (women aged) 45-51 years were more sensitive to differences in infant cuteness than men aged 19-26 and 53-60 years,” said Doctor Reiner Sprengelmeyer.

However, women aged 53-60 performed at the same level as men in determining the “cuteness” of the newborns.

“Because average age at menopause is 51 years in the UK, these findings suggest the possible involvement of reproductive hormones in cuteness sensitivity,” Sprengelmeyer said.

“We therefore compared cuteness discrimination in pre- and post-menopausal women of the same age alongside women taking and not taking oral contraceptives (progesterone and oestrogen).

“Pre-menopausal women and young women taking oral contraceptives — which raise hormone levels artificially — were more sensitive to variations of cuteness than their respective comparison groups.”

Psychologists at St Andrews conducted the research along with colleagues from the universities of Bern in Switzerland, Bielefeld in Germany and York in England.

They chose 10 images from a pool of more than 100 baby pictures and combined them into a composite of a “cute” baby face.

They repeated the process to create a less “cute” baby face.

The findings led them to suggest that cuteness sensitivity is modulated by female reproductive hormones.

Sprengelmeyer said: “Given that cuteness is considered an indicator of being young, helpless, and in need of care, we hypothesise that the ability to detect small variations in the degree of cuteness may have evolved to guide the allocation of necessary maternal resources to the infant.”

Further research will explore whether cuteness sensitivity is implicated in post-natal depression.