Sophie Turner Is British Vogue’s June 2024 Cover Star
Sophie Turner’s journey from child actor to major player, via marriage and motherhood, reads like a Hollywood fairytale. But when her personal life publicly unravelled last year, her world was shaken to the core. Ready to light up screens once more, the star speaks for the first time since her split to Chioma Nnadi about mum-shaming, misogyny and why the best is yet to come. Photographs by Mikael Jansson. Styling by Camilla Nickerson
Let me be upfront: I can’t remember the last time I set foot inside a gym. Frankly, the very notion of working out, at least in the traditional sense, has never been my cup of tea. (How I resisted this after 20 years in New York, a place where gym is king, is beyond me!) That might seem like an odd confession to make as I introduce British Vogue’s longevity issue, but hear me out. The way we think about our wellbeing has changed radically over the last decade. We now know that feeling good has as much do with our mental health as it does the physical. Which is why phrases such as “beach body” or “bikini ready” and the toxic diet culture they inspire feel so wrong.READ MORE
“I’m The Happiest I’ve Been In A Really Long Time”: Sophie Turner Talks Mum-Shaming, Misogyny And Why The Best Is Yet To Come By Vogue British
At the age of 24, Turner was among the first of her peers to become a mother. She recalls finding out she was pregnant while on a retreat in Bali. “It was my first day there and I was meeting my roommate for the first time. Before we settled down to chat, I told her that I just needed to go and take a pregnancy test. I took the test and was like: ‘I’m pregnant, so nice to meet you!’”
“Maybe because I was so young, I sat on it for a week,” she recalls. “Thankfully there were therapists there to help me talk things through. I told my husband when I got back. I remember throwing the pregnancy test at him, saying ‘What do you think we should do? Do you think we should have it?’ When you’re in your early 20s, life is so frivolous. At that point, I really didn’t know if I wanted to be a mother, but something changed in me that day. I just knew I had to have her.”
Her eldest child, Willa, arrived in the summer of 2020 when much of the world was locked down. It afforded Turner a 10-month period of uninterrupted mother-daughter bonding time. “At that age, everything changes so quickly. One week they’re breastfeeding and the next they’re sitting there eating avocado. It’s a real miracle to just watch them grow up in front of your eyes,” she says. Delphine, who was born two years later, was very much planned. “Because my ex and I travel so much, I wanted Willa to have a sibling. I wanted them to have each other,” she explains. “They’re so much fun, total girlie girls and absolute rays of sunshine in my life.”
If you’re keen to learn more about cold-water therapy, do read Kathleen Baird-Murray’s story about the phenomenon in the June issue. The images of model Vivien Solari, herself a devotee of the practice, are mesmerising. Ditto the breathtaking editorial with Kendall Jenner, shot by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott. Staying on the theme of wellness, writer Maya Singer explores new-gen diagnostic testing, while Coco Mellors’s essay, Notes on Sobriety, is a moving look at recovery. Fascinating reads both, and in the same life-affirming spirit, Hamish Bowles chronicles the challenges and triumphs of healing after a stroke, with utmost honesty and trademark elegance.
Sophie Turner, our June cover, is finding her footing too, albeit on a different path. When I sat down to interview her in the wake of her high-profile separation from Joe Jonas, I was impressed by her resilience. But more than that, what stood out to me was her willingness to embrace vulnerability and share the experiences that have tested the limits of her emotional health. As she turns a corner on that chapter, settled back in her homeland surrounded by friends and family, and with a fantastic new acting role, I feel honoured to be celebrating her at this pivotal junction in her life.
Article on this page was by a Vogue’s editor. Reference British Vogue
