Cybill Shepherd
American actress and former model
To a man whose heart I broke at 17.
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
Question
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Craft & work
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Question
When was the last time you changed your mind about something?
Change of mind
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A fixed Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Mum, because I never really knew how to cope with her alcoholism.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 13 September 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 209 →
Lolita Chakrabarti
British actress and writer
To my mum; I wish I’d known her better before she passed in 2016.
Both parents, I’ll write the book someday.
Douglas Stuart
Scottish fashion designer and novelist
To my younger self. I was incredibly self-loathing and self-doubting, and I’m still undoing that damage 30 years later.
More from Chris Bryant
View profile →The Doctor in Doctor Who. I still do.
The melanoma has returned in your lung.
Getting elected as MP for the Rhondda in 2001 despite everyone saying I was too “exotic” or “flamboyant”, ie gay.
A dog, though my husband would prefer a cat.
I’d have reported the tutor who asked me to read an essay to him sitting on the toilet as he lay soaping himself in the bath.
When I worked out I was gay and decided to leave the church at 29.
More on failure & regret
- What has been your biggest disappointment? 369 answers
- If you could edit your past, what would you change? 205 answers
- What is the worst thing anyone has said to you? 124 answers
- Which moment embarrassed you most? 124 answers
- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? 77 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 39 answers
Also answered this
Louis Theroux, Kellie Maloney, John Prescott, Anita Rani, Sadiq Khan, Caroline Lucas
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All failure & regret questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject