It's been about six months since Paula Patton filed for divorce from Robin Thicke, and longer since the series of embarrassing scandals that rocked her marriage. How is she holding up? Spectacularly. Patton says she feels like a "real" woman now, in fact.
The newly single mom of a 4-year-old son appeared on the Meredith Vieira show to talk about life after Robin. And I have to say this, because it was impossible to ignore -- Ms. Patton was positively glowing.
Anyway, she told Vieira that she's doing really well. She says she's feeling grateful for everything she has in her life right now and is growing up in many ways. And then she added, "I moved from my parents' house to moving in with Robin and now I'm like becoming an adult at this old age. I'm really like a real woman now!"
Yes, she is! Remember, Patton started dating her ex-husband when she was just 14. She's been in the cocoon of that relationship for a very long time. Emerging from it must feel like beginning a whole new life, in a very exciting way.
I can relate. I got married just after I turned 25 and was married for 16 years. Stepping out of that life and into a new one feels like waking up from a coma, or time-traveling into the future.
Making a marriage work (and I give us both credit for making it work under absurdly impossible odds for 16 years) matures you in certain ways. But wow, leaving your marriage and striking out on your own, with a kid especially, is a whole 'nother level. And let me tell you, taking out the garbage yourself every time ages you. Ha! Okay, that's not at all what Patton means.
Seriously, though, when you start doing everything on your own, you learn how to take care of yourself in ways you may not have learned before marriage. It's deep! But it's also incredibly empowering. It's a huge confidence boost when you see that you're making it, even if in a half-assed, sloppy, divorced mom way.
And when you start getting out there and dating? Wow, talk about feeling like a woman. Men start looking at you in ways you haven't been looked at in a very, very long time, and that's just the beginning. If you're drop-dead gorgeous like Patton ... well, I can only imagine. I am thrilled for her.
So to anyone who has just separated from her husband, or who knows a divorce is in order but hasn't yet found the courage to take that leap, take Patton's words for inspiration. It will be difficult, but adopt a grateful attitude and you will come out feeling like a real woman.
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Do you know any divorced women who seemed to come out of it stronger than ever?
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