Cecile Richards: When were you happiest?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

Asked in 52 of the 131 consecutive instalments of The Guardian's The Q&A harvested on 2026-08-29.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Cecile Richards said elsewhere, not written here

January 15, 1991. Walking up Congress Avenue in Austin, with thousands of others, to see Mom sworn in as governor of Texas.

Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, March 2018 source ↗

Others on this question

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Jerry Springer American TV personality and politician

When my daughter, Katie, was born and when she got married.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 May 2009 source ↗

Siri Hustvedt American novelist, essayist, poet

I have a penchant for happiness. I have experienced euphoria before a migraine, which may not count, but I have also felt immense happiness leaning back in a chair in sunlight, puttering in my garden, reading, dancing, immediately after giving birth and when writing.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 August 2017 source ↗

Charlize Theron South African-American actress

I couldn't answer that. There are so many amazing things – falling in love, winning an Oscar, moving my mom out to America and just having a simple dinner with great friends.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 March 2009 source ↗

Alan Johnson British politician