Brooke Shields: What period or moment in your life brought you the most joy?

The question

What period or moment in your life brought you the most joy?

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.

Brooke Shields

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

On a beach, watching my girls do cartwheels, with a Goombay Smash with a floater on top.

Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, February 2025 source ↗

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David Hasselhoff American actor, singer, and television personality

When I was doing Knight Rider.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 April 2009 source ↗

Vanessa Redgrave British actress and activist

Is all happiness in the past? Well, the births of three children. And playing with children and grandchildren.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 September 2018 source ↗

Christian Louboutin

Weirdly enough, in Portugal during confinement.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, September 2021 source ↗

John Cooper Clarke English poet

Happiness is the target one only has to aim at in order to miss.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 July 2013 source ↗

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Question Who alive today do you admire most, and what draws you to them? Values & belief

Gloria Steinem.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, February 2025 source ↗

Question What does happiness look like for you when life is going well? Identity & self

Watching my girls laugh together. It is more short-lived than I’d like, but it does happen!

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 18 February 2025 source ↗

Question What do you fear most? Identity & self

Drowning. The feeling of not being able to take a breath. I’m sure my therapist would have something to say about the deep psychological reasons for it.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, February 2025 source ↗

Question If you could alter one thing about yourself, what would it be? Identity & self

I would erase my fear of dying, but I suppose that would be erasing some of my human condition.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 18 February 2025 source ↗

Question Which quality in your friends matters most to you? Relationships

Humor. Laughing with my girlfriends is one of my great joys.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 18 February 2025 source ↗

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