Sophie Turner covers one of Harper’s Bazaar UK’s Woman of the Year issues. Sophie has had a notable year, which started when she and Joe Jonas separated last year, then filed for divorce, which then briefly became a really major international custodial dispute over their two daughters. They agreed to mediation in New York, and quickly worked out a temporary and then permanent custodial situation, and Sophie now lives full-time in the UK. In 2024, she’s been working non-stop and enjoying a romance with a British aristocrat. She spoke about all of this and more with Bazaar:
What went wrong in her marriage to Joe: “I’m going through a legal process right now where I can’t really say much, but it was incredibly sad. We had a beautiful relationship, and it was hard.”
She’s happy to be back in England: “I’m so happy to be back. It felt as if my life was on pause until I returned to England. I just never really feel like myself when I’m not in London, with my friends and family. I was away for so long – six years – and it was when my friends were getting engaged, and when I got pregnant. I went for dinner with someone the other day, and she said, ‘I never got to touch your belly.’ We didn’t have those key experiences with each other.”
She suffered from homesickness in America: “Every city we ended up in, the first thing I’d do was find a British shop and stock up on a month’s worth of chocolate” – but it was the politics that she found hardest to cope with. “The gun violence, Roe v Wade being overturned… Everything just kind of piled on. After the Uvalde [school] shooting, I knew it was time to get the f–k out of there.”
Motherhood: “[It] changed me so much in every way. Before I had kids, I was very depressed and anxious, and I would isolate [myself] a lot. Now, I think I live my life for them. I want them to see me having a social life and enjoying work and thriving in my career and relationships. I want them to see a hard-working mum. I’ll come back and say, ‘This is why Mummy was away – it’s because she’s doing this for you, so Father Christmas can come with a big bundle of presents.’”
Child stardom: “At that age, all I knew was I wanted to act. I didn’t even think about my weight or how I looked, it was just, ‘This is fun, I get to play every day.’ I learnt far too young what I’m supposed to look like, and how I’m supposed to behave. I think that’s how child stars end up being so messed up, because they’re not allowed to make mistakes, and therefore they’re not allowed to grow…”
She developed bulimia, then anorexia in her teens: “What a whopper of an eating disorder that was! It still affects me. I don’t think it ever leaves you, I think you just try to learn to manage it. If I see a plate of food, I still feel a little bit of dread. But the great thing about being a mother is that I get to teach my kids how to have a healthy relationship with their bodies, which feels like a justice to myself.”
She’s still tight with her Game of Thrones friends: “I went from 13 to 23 on that show – it was my whole childhood. We’re all still on a massive group chat, and we try and meet each other whenever we’re in the same country… they’re family.” She is planning to get the fading dire-wolf tattoo on her arm re-inked. “That will stay forever. I wish it wasn’t so massive, but you make mistakes, don’t you?”
Her romantic life: Since the end of last year, she has been dating Peregrine Pearson, who is in line to become the 5th Viscount of Cowdray. “We’re very happy,” she says, blushing, when I ask how it’s going. “It came around very quickly. I just needed to go on a date to know how to do it again. That was the first date and the last date, and it’s been great.” What’s he like? “He’s lovely. He’s funny, and he brings out the cheeky side of me, the fun side. He lights me back up.”
It’s amazing to see how much she’s blossomed since returning to the UK – when she lived in America, she rarely went out for anything other than Joe’s events, she didn’t work much, and I think Joe really encouraged her to be a stay-at-home mom. I wonder about what looks like a 50/50 custody split and whether they can make that work internationally forever, but I appreciate that she’s not airing all of that in the media. Maybe it will change, maybe it won’t. I also get why she felt like she needed to leave the US, and I bet that was magnified so much during the pandemic and during the Trump administration.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red. Cover courtesy of Bazaar UK.
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- Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner attends the 2022 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Radhika Jones celebrating the 94th annual Academy Awards at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on March 27, 2022 in Beverly Hills, California,Image: 673513781, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner, Credit line: – / JPI Studios / Avalon
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- Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner at the 2nd Annual Academy Museum Gala held at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, USA on October 15, 2022. Copyright: xZoonar.com/Lumeimages.comx 19252721,Image: 800185331, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: imago is entitled to issue a simple usage license at the time of provision. Personality and trademark rights as well as copyright laws regarding art-works shown must be observed. Commercial use at your own risk., Model Release: no, Credit line: IMAGO/Zoonar.com/Lumeimages.com / Avalon
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- Cast attend the launch of new ITV series ‘Joan’, at Jack Solomons Club in London Featuring: Sophie Turner Where: London, United Kingdom When: 19 Sep 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Cast attend the launch of new ITV series ‘Joan’, at Jack Solomons Club in London Featuring: Sophie Turner Where: London, United Kingdom When: 19 Sep 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
Every pic I see her in now, she is simply glowing. Good for her.
I’m glad life is working out for her, now. I bet their babies are beautiful.
Motherhood: “[It] changed me so much in every way. Before I had kids, I was very depressed and anxious, and I would isolate [myself] a lot. Now, I think I live my life for them. I want them to see me having a social life and enjoying work and thriving in my career and relationships. I want them to see a hard-working mum. I’ll come back and say, ‘This is why Mummy was away – it’s because she’s doing this for you, so Father Christmas can come with a big bundle of presents.’”
😳
What’s the issue you have with this statement?
At a guess, it’s the mommy has to leave you so can have presents at Christmas, part? I can see where that might confuse or upset a child. (jmo)
Reads like it was drafted by a PR person actually. Don’t blame Sophie, given all the “why isn’t she looking after her kids” comments for working mums.
@Silver, It’s not about her being a working mom, it’s about how she’s tying it to things like Christmas presents.
@Lady D, that’s the gist of it. It’s really messed up.
One of the things she sort of addressed here (looking for an English shop in each city they were in) deserves more emphasis: She was moving all over the place all the time (part of the custody issue). It’s a great way to isolate someone if you don’t put down roots.
I completely understand her horror of school shootings and repealing Roe v Wade. She’s made the right choice: She looks and sounds so much better than she did a year ago.
Being at peace in your home and your environment is crucial. I feel like it’s tied to our life journey. Kudos for her
I notice when English actors fail in america they bash us for street cred back home. Throw in a “the guns scared me” and its the same story. Before sophie sharon osbourne basically saud the same thing. Yet the guns didn’t stop them from coming over here. Of course uvalde is a tragedy and shows how awful our legal system us. To date no one has went to trial over uvalde.
It seems its easier to force yourself on the english public then the american public. Their stars make flop after flop and still get glowing press.
I don’t think she’s bashing America. She moved here when she didn’t have kids, and now she’s got young children who will start school soon and there’s an objective difference between the amount of gun violence in U.S. schools (700+ mass shootings) and the amount in U.K. schools (0 mass shootings).
I didn’t see it as her bashing the US. I have lived in the US and in Europe and while the US was awesome in many ways, things are changing and yes, some things were really scary. I felt great about L.A. and New York as a 19yr old, but in my 30s, not so much. Also, Sophie’s career was basically a 10 yr success from age 13, then she took a break, had two kids in a short span of time and catered to his schedule. Her marriage seemed over the moment she went back to work filming her new series in the UK. They said they would all move and bought a UK house, but looked like he was all talk and no action. And home sickness can be a real thing.
Maybe she was in a unhappy marriage, simple as that (not that marriage is ever simple. My guess is Joe did not understand how unhappy she really was.
I don’t think she understood herself how unhappy she was in recent years.
I’ve heard other people recovered from eating disorders say the same thing. It doesn’t entirely leave you and your relationship with food is changed forever
Yes, I think she was sad and lonely in that marriage–and could’ve been happy married to somebody else. UK politics are also brutal, Brexit has been bad, and UK has big problems with knife crimes. So no place is perfect.
Given the choice, however, I can see why you’d want to raise your kids among your relatives in the country you call home. I wish she’d kept it at that and not bashed us when we’re down.
Nowhere is perfect, but it’s also not comparable.
The UK’s knife problem is nearly all gang related. It’s horrendous and awful (I’m directly involved with working with local young people in my area affected by gangs, county lines, and knife crime) BUT it’s entirely intra-community violence.
Meaning it’s kids in gangs stabbing kids in rival gangs. If you’re not in a gang, if you’re not that very specific demographic, then you’re in zero danger. They don’t mess with anyone outside of their own gang system (and it’s also restricted to very specific areas). I often visit one of the highest crime areas of London and I feel completely safe, my kids are physically completely safe, I walk past groups of kids that I know are gang members and I feel safe because I am invisible to them. Because they’re not going to stab an outsider.
It’s horrendous but gang-related knife crime doesn’t represent any potential physical danger to anyone else. And people can easily just avoid gang turf areas.
In America, mass shootings can happen anytime, anywhere, and they DO target strangers and random people.
It’s also worth pointing out that the USA has far more knife crimes per capita than the UK. The USA is just all round massively more violent. The UK really has very little violence unless you’re involved with gangs.
What a bizarre comment.
Just the other week two boys were knifed to death in a case of mistaken identity.
But I’m happy you feel safe around gang members, many whom are underaged and high on God knows what. Let’s hope you don’t look like their aim next time.
I’m really surprised that some people above felt Sophie was bashing America, when she clearly had negative experiences there and suffered homesickness.
I’m from the Northeast. A friend of mine moved to El Paso and one of the reasons they moved back was a lack of trees and green. No joke, same country. It took me years to deal with the flatness of the NLs. ST mentions London: great place, great energy, but unique. She’s also mentioned loving the English countryside–America doesn’t look or feel like those places. The culture is different. I’m integrated in Dutch society, but I’m really thankful for my American friends! Our experiences growing up were different to those of Dutch people. The humor is different. Sometimes you just feel understood by people who have had similar experiences that people around you don’t understand, and that’s okay.
Plus, guys, she was isolated. The Jonas brothers famously travel as a family. Her MiL was very present. They are very Christian. They moved every month or two to a different location, so Sophie wasn’t making friends in a community of really putting down roots. Please note that after Roe v Wade, Joe Jonas went to FL from CA: she’s alluding to how he tried to trap her and the political situation. She also mentions ongoing legal issues. Being married to and divorced from an American schmuck means that she had a nastier American experience, and she’s honest about that. She’s not bashing all Americans; she’s saying what she had difgiculty with.