Hadley Freeman
{{short description|American-British journalist (born 1978)}}
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{{Lead too short|date=March 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2016}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Hadley Freeman
| birth_name = Hadley Clare Freeman
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1978|05|15|df=y}}
| birth_place = New York City, U.S.
| employer = {{plainlist|
}}
| education = Cambridge Centre for Sixth-form Studies
| alma_mater = St Anne's College, Oxford
| known_for = Journalist, author
| relatives = Catie Lazarus (cousin){{cite news |first1=Freeman |last1=Hadley |title=My naughty cousin Catie Lazarus was the funniest woman in any room – how I'll miss her |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/02/my-naughty-cousin-catie-lazarus-was-the-funniest-woman-in-any-room-how-ill-miss-her |work=The Guardian |date=2 January 2021 |access-date=3 January 2021}}
|children=3
}}
Hadley Clare Freeman (born 15 May 1978){{cite news |last=Freeman |first=Hadley |date=12 May 2018 |title=I can't wait to turn 40. After four decades of getting things wrong, I know some stuff |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/12/turn-40-what-learned-hadley-freeman |work=The Guardian |access-date=29 May 2018}} is an American British journalist. She writes for The Sunday Times,{{cite news |first1=Maher |last1=Bron |title=Long-serving Guardian columnist Hadley Freeman leaves for Sunday Times|url=https://pressgazette.co.uk/hadley-freeman-leaves-guardian-sunday-times/ |work=Press Gazette|date=2 November 2022 |access-date=3 November 2022}} having previously written for The Guardian.{{cite news |last=Freeman |first=Hadley |date=4 July 2012 |title=Cricket and other baffling British habits |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jul/04/cricket-baffling-british-habits |work=The Guardian|access-date=29 May 2018}}
In 2024 she won Broadsheet Columnist of the Year from The Press Awards.{{cite news |last1=Sleator |first1=Laurence |author2=Alex Farber |title=Press Awards honour The Times and The Sunday Times |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/press-awards-honour-the-times-and-the-sunday-times-m0bldfbtp |access-date=19 April 2024 |work=The Times |date=19 April 2024}}
Early life
Freeman was born in New York City to a Jewish family. Her father worked in finance.{{cite news |last=Groskop |first=Viv |author-link=Viv Groskop |title=Be Awesome: Modern Life for Modern Ladies, by Hadley Freeman – review |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/may/19/be-awesome-modern-ladies-hadley-freeman-review |work=The Observer |date=19 May 2013 |access-date=29 May 2018}}{{cite news |last=Freeman |first=Hadley|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/nov/06/sick-of-us-news|title=Sick of US news? Don't worry: there are lots of other things to discuss|newspaper=The Guardian|date=6 November 2012 |access-date=29 May 2018}} The family moved to London when Freeman was 11.{{cite news |last1=Gil |first1=Natalie |last2=Forster |first2=Katie |title=Interview: Hadley Freeman |url=http://thetab.com/uk/cambridge/2012/11/04/hadley-freeman-interview-7023 |work=The Tab |date=4 November 2012 |access-date=29 May 2018}} She has dual British and American citizenship.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/04/american-british-can-i-save-special-relationship|title=I'm American and British. Can I save the special relationship?|last=Freeman|first=Hadley|date=4 February 2017|access-date=9 March 2020|work=The Guardian}}
Freeman suffered from anorexia and was treated in a psychiatric unit during six different periods between ages 13 and 17.{{cite news |last=Freeman |first=Hadley|url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/nov/25/wasnt-feminist-theory-cured-anorexia |title=It wasn't feminist theory that cured my anorexia – it was having something to eat for |work=The Guardian |date=25 November 2017 |access-date=22 December 2017}} After taking her A-level examinations while boarding at the Cambridge Centre for Sixth-form Studies,{{cite web |title=Alumni Profiles |url=http://www.ccss.co.uk/alumni/alumni-profiles.htm |publisher=Cambridge Centre for Sixth-form Studies |access-date=1 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141101171724/http://www.ccss.co.uk/alumni/alumni-profiles.htm |archive-date=1 November 2014}} she read English literature at St Anne's College, Oxford, and edited the student newspaper Cherwell.{{cite news |last=Levy Gale |first=Sadie |date=10 August 2013 |title=Interview: Hadley Freeman – How to be Awesome |url=http://cherwell.org/2013/08/09/interview-hadley-freeman-how-to-be-awesome/ |work=Cherwell |access-date=29 May 2018}}
Career
After a year in Paris, Freeman worked on the fashion desk of The Guardian for eight years.{{cite news |last=Freeman |first=Hadley|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/esmagazine/i-was-banned-from-a-slew-of-shows-and-never-brushed-my-hair-hadley-freemans-life-as-a-fashion-misfit-8609613.html|title=I was banned from a slew of shows and never brushed my hair: Hadley Freeman's life as a fashion misfit |work=Evening Standard |date=10 May 2013 |access-date=29 May 2018}} She joined The Guardian in 2000 and has worked for the newspaper as a staff writer and columnist and contributes to the UK version of Vogue.{{cite web|url=https://www.rcwlitagency.com/authors/freeman-hadley/|title=Hadley Freeman|work=RCW agency|access-date=18 September 2021}} Following an article for The Guardian in July 2013 criticising misogynistic behaviour, Freeman received a bomb threat on Twitter.{{cite news |last=Batty |first=David |date=1 August 2013 |title=Bomb threats made on Twitter to female journalists |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jul/31/bomb-threats-twitter-journalists |work=The Guardian |access-date=1 August 2013}}
Freeman's books include The Meaning of Sunglasses: A Guide to (Almost) All Things Fashionable, in 2009{{cite book |last=Freeman |first=Hadley |date=5 February 2009 |title=The Meaning of Sunglasses: A Guide to (Almost) All Things Fashionable |url=https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/56188/the-meaning-of-sunglasses/ |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-670-01867-3}} and Be Awesome: Modern Life for Modern Ladies in 2013,{{cite book |last=Freeman |first=Hadley |date=25 April 2013 |title=Be Awesome: Modern Life for Modern Ladies |url=https://www.harpercollins.co.uk/9780007485703/be-awesome/ |publisher=Fourth Estate |isbn=978-0-007-48570-3 |access-date=29 May 2018 |archive-date=29 May 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180529204623/https://www.harpercollins.co.uk/9780007485703/be-awesome/ |url-status=dead }} which was described by Jennifer Lipman in The Jewish Chronicle as "a detailed attack on how women are both portrayed and conditioned to act in public life".{{cite news |last=Lipman |first=Jennifer |date=30 May 2013 |title=Be Awesome: Modern Life for Modern Ladies |url=http://www.thejc.com/arts/books/108056/be-awesome-modern-life-modern-ladies |work=The Jewish Chronicle |access-date=29 May 2018}} Life Moves Pretty Fast appeared in 2015.{{cite news |last=Ellen |first=Barbara |date=17 May 2015 |title=Life Moves Pretty Fast review – a funny, absorbing study of 80s Hollywood |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/17/life-moves-pretty-fast-hadley-freeman-funny-absorbing-80s |work=The Observer|access-date=24 July 2016}}
In March 2020, House of Glass: The Story and Secrets of a Twentieth-Century Jewish Family, was published.{{cite book |last=Freeman |first=Hadley |date=5 March 2020 |title=House of Glass: The Story and Secrets of a Twentieth-Century Jewish Family |url=https://www.harpercollins.co.uk/9780008322632/house-of-glass-the-story-and-secrets-of-a-twentieth-century-jewish-family/ |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=9780008322632 |access-date=2 March 2020 |archive-date=2 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200302111439/https://www.harpercollins.co.uk/9780008322632/house-of-glass-the-story-and-secrets-of-a-twentieth-century-jewish-family/ |url-status=dead }} It is an account of the lives of her grandmother Sala Glass and her three brothers Alex, Jacques, and Henri in Poland, France, and the United States during the course of the twentieth century.{{cite news|last=Hennigan|first=Adrian|url=https://www.haaretz.com/life/.premium.MAGAZINE-picasso-dior-auschwitz-and-an-ayatollah-uncovering-a-secret-jewish-family-history-1.8705909|title=Picasso, Dior, Auschwitz and an Ayatollah: Uncovering a Secret Jewish Family History|newspaper=Haaretz|date=24 March 2020|access-date=24 March 2020}}{{Cite news |last=David |first=Keren |url=https://www.thejc.com/culture/features/hadley-freeman-s-family-secrets-1.497326 |title=The family secrets found in a shoebox |date=27 February 2020 |work=The Jewish Chronicle |access-date=29 February 2020}} Karen Heller wrote in The Washington Post of Freeman being "an exacting historian" who "tackles anti-Semitism, Jewish guilt and success".{{cite news|last=Heller|first=Karen|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/in-house-of-glass-hadley-freeman-unearths-the-world-war-ii-era-secrets-of-her-familys-past/2020/03/30/59d86c0c-6eb4-11ea-b148-e4ce3fbd85b5_story.html|title=In House of Glass, Hadley Freeman unearth's the World War II-era secrets of her family's past|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=30 March 2020|access-date=31 March 2020|url-access=subscription}}
Freeman ended her Weekend Guardian column in September 2021 to concentrate on interviews for the newspaper.{{cite news|last=Freeman|first=Hadley|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/18/opinion-writing-has-changed-a-lot-since-i-started-out-its-time-for-something-new|title=Opinion writing has changed a lot since I started out. It's time for something new|work=The Guardian|date=18 September 2021|access-date=18 September 2021}} In November 2022, Freeman announced that she would be leaving The Guardian and would write for The Sunday Times.
Her memoir Good Girls: A Story and Study of Anorexia, recounting her teenage experience of anorexia, was published by Fourth Estate in April 2023.{{cite magazine|last=Chandler|first=Mark|url=https://www.thebookseller.com/news/fourth-estate-buys-freemans-ground-breaking-memoir-1249077|title=Fourth Estate buys Freeman's 'ground-breaking' memoir|magazine=The Bookseller|date=17 March 2021|access-date=18 September 2021}}{{cite news |last1=Sturges |first1=Fiona |title=Good Girls by Hadley Freeman review – anorexia from within |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/apr/05/good-girls-by-hadley-freeman-review-anorexia-from-within |access-date=14 April 2023 |newspaper=The Guardian |date=5 April 2023}}
In September 2024, Freeman, Jonathan Freedland and David Aaronovitch resigned from The Jewish Chronicle.{{Cite web |date=2024-09-15 |title=Jewish Chronicle: Jonathan Freedland and Hadley Freeman quit in Gaza articles row |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgnn153zg1o |access-date=2024-09-17 |website=BBC News |language=en-GB}}
Views
In June 2018, Freeman denounced the treatment of undocumented child immigrants arriving in America, drawing parallels with her grandmother's experience of escaping from the Holocaust. Freeman described it as deliberate cruelty by the Trump administration, and a reflection of latent racism amongst its supporters.{{cite news |last=Freeman |first=Hadley |date=19 June 2018 |title=Donald Trump's child cruelty shocks us, but it shouldn't surprise us |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/19/donald-trump-child-cruelty-american-pedigree |work=The Guardian |access-date=19 June 2018}}{{primary inline|date=July 2024}}
In November 2018, U.S. journalists from The Guardian published an opinion piece criticising a Guardian editorial about the Gender Recognition Act, arguing it was transphobic.{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/02/guardian-editorial-response-transgender-rights-uk |title=Why we take issue with the Guardian's stance on trans rights in the UK |last1=Levin |first1=Sam |date=2 November 2018 |work=The Guardian |access-date=19 December 2019 |last2=Chalabi |first2=Mona |language=en-GB |last3=Siddiqui |first3=Sabrina }} In tweets, Freeman defended the editorial.{{Cite news |url=https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/11/03/guardian-transphobic-editorial-concern/ |title=Guardian US journalists denounce newspaper's "transphobic" editorial |date=3 November 2018 |work=PinkNews |last=Persio |first=Sofia Lotto |access-date=29 February 2020 }} She has since been cited as expressing views that some have considered transphobic, particularly in regard to trans people seeking healthcare and trans people struggling with suicidal ideation.{{Cite news |work = PinkNews|url=https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/01/10/hadley-freeman-suicidal-trans-youth/ |title=Journalist Hadley Freeman condemned for 'dangerous' comments about suicidal trans kids |last=Hansford |first=Amelia |date=10 January 2023|access-date = 7 May 2023}}{{Cite news |url=https://www.dailydot.com/irl/attacking-trans-women-feminist/ |title=There's nothing feminist about attacking trans women |last=Valens |first=Ana |date=2 April 2018 |work=The Daily Dot |access-date=8 June 2021 |language=en-GB }}{{cite news |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/889qe5/trans-rights-uk-debate-terfs |title=Inside the Great British TERF War |last=Ewens |first=Hannah |date=16 June 2020 |work=Vice |access-date=8 June 2021 |language=en-GB }} In June 2021, Freeman used her regular opinion column in The Guardian to describe that she had "lost at least a dozen friends over this ... friends who have told me my beliefs are transphobic".{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jun/26/people-have-told-me-i-am-on-the-wrong-side-of-history-but-i-still-want-to-be-their-friend |title=People have told me I'm on the wrong side of history, but I still want to be their friend |first=Hadley |last=Freeman |work=The Guardian |date=26 June 2021 |access-date=19 February 2022 }}
In December 2022, after 22 years of working for The Guardian Freeman left the newspaper after she said she was denied her request to follow up on The Daily Telegraph{{'}}s investigation into the charity Mermaids, which supports transgender youth in the UK. She said there was an "atmosphere of real fear" at The Guardian over its coverage of trans issues, saying that the paper was not allowing her and others to write on gender issues and barring her from interviewing J. K. Rowling and Martina Navratilova who have gender-critical views.{{cite news |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/12/05/hadley-freeman-atmosphere-fear-governs-guardian-trans-coverage/ |title=Hadley Freeman: 'Atmosphere of fear' governs Guardian trans coverage |first=Anita |last=Singh |date=5 December 2022 |access-date=5 May 2023|work=The Daily Telegraph|url-access=subscription}}
In an essay in the Jewish Quarterly from May 2024, she argues that the progressive Left had "hijacked" the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel and had been misrepresenting those atrocities.{{multiref|{{cite magazine|author=Hadley Freeman|title=Blindness: October 7 and the Left|type=96 pages|magazine=The Jewish Quarterly|number=256|date=May 2024|url=https://jewishquarterly.com/essay/2024/05/blindness|access-date=June 17, 2024|isbn=9781760644369|ref=none}}|{{cite web|author=Hadley Freeman|title=The blindness of the left wing over October 7|type=essay extract|date=May 16, 2024|url=https://thejewishindependent.com.au/the-blindness-of-the-left-over-october-7|access-date=June 17, 2024|website=The Jewish Independent|location=Australia|ref=none}}}}{{primary inline|date=July 2024}}
Personal life
Freeman often discusses cinema, particularly from the 1980s, in her articles and occasionally in broadcasts. She has said that her favourite film is Ghostbusters{{cite news |last=Freeman |first=Hadley |date=27 October 2011 |title=My favourite film: Ghostbusters |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2011/oct/27/my-favourite-film-ghostbusters |work=The Guardian |access-date=24 July 2016}} and that she has a collection of related books and articles.{{cite news |last=Freeman |first=Hadley |date=27 October 2011 |title=Why I owe it all to 1980s movies |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/may/09/dirty-dancing-ghostbusters-80s-films-hadley-freeman |work=The Guardian |access-date=24 July 2016}}
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
{{Wikiquote}}
- [https://www.theguardian.com/profile/hadleyfreeman Column archive] at The Guardian
- [http://www.newstatesman.com/writers/hadley_freeman Column archive] at New Statesman
- {{Twitter}}
- [http://www.journalisted.com/hadley-freeman Article archive] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090216021100/http://www.journalisted.com/hadley-freeman |date=16 February 2009 }} at Journalisted.com
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Freeman, Hadley}}
Category:Alumni of St Anne's College, Oxford
Category:American emigrants to England
Category:The Guardian journalists
Category:The Sunday Times people
Category:Jewish American journalists
Category:People educated at the Cambridge Centre for Sixth-form Studies
Category:21st-century American women journalists
Category:21st-century American journalists
Category:21st-century American women writers
Category:British women journalists
Category:21st-century British journalists