In every generation of British society, we have a responsibility to leave the next generation with a better world.

The 60s and 70s, under Harold Wilson’s government, saw Britain take decisive steps towards becoming a more open and equal society. Central to these changes was the decriminalisation of homosexuality, a landmark reform that helped lay the foundations for the rights many now take for granted.

The 80s through to the early 2000s brought fundamental questions about the role of the state in our communities across the four nations. Devolution sparked debate on whether Westminster should hold majority control over local communities in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and we saw the creation of the Scottish Parliament and the Senedd in 1999. In London, we saw the Greater London Authority established – comprising the Mayor of London and the London Assembly Members, who play a crucial role to our Capital’s continued prosperity.

From the 2010s, we’ve shifted the conversation towards systemic injustices, fair policing and fairness of our institutions with respect to ethnic minority groups and the LGBT community. Here in the Cities of London and Westminster, a constituency with such historic ties to the LGBT community in Soho; home to London Pride, G-A-Y and the City of Quebec, we know the impact this has had. And we continue to welcome individuals from all over the world representing a wide range of backgrounds and religious beliefs into our community.

What underpins the issues that previous generations have responded to is the preservation of our liberal democracy. How do we define this? At its core, it is simple: the idea that we are all free to express our opinions, without fear of being targeted or harmed for doing so and that we all have the chance to vote for candidates who we believe best represent us, based on information available to us.

It has been covered at length that far-right rhetoric is once again finding its way into communities across the country. Many of these far right views are designed to incite division, spread hatred, and revive ideas that should have been rejected decades ago.

We have all discussed how to confront many of these views, and rightly so, but what tends to slip out of the conversation is the legal framework that governments can implement to actively defend and strengthen our democracy.

The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government introducing the Representation of the People Bill before the House is not just another piece of legislation, it is a clear statement of intent. With the growing complexity of the current state of our society, there is a growing demand to reflect and reconsider how we reinvigorate democratic values within our grassroots. This Bill shows this government is prepared to act. Trust in politics, and crucially politicians, is at an all-time low. This Bill is an opportunity to begin rebuilding that trust, with measures including transparency over political donations, preventing foreign interference in our elections and stronger sanctions on serious malpractice.

We are extending the right to vote to 16- and 17-year-olds. For many young people, this is long overdue. This will be music to the ears of many sixth form and college students that I have been talking to across the Cities of London and Westminster. Many of whom remind me they can begin their first job, pay taxes into the state, or even enlist themselves into the army, but cannot yet make a decision on their futures.

We must also take on the challenge of donations in the form of crypto assets. There are no mechanisms in place to identify whether the sources of these donations are lawfully approved, due to the anonymity crypto provides.

And crucially, while current laws are designed to ensure transparency during the election, the government must consider the impact of undeclared political donations outside of the regulatory period. Influence is not limited to the campaign period, it is persistent and lacks the transparency necessary to regain public trust in our institutions.

The Representation of the People’s Bill is about more than process, it is about protecting our democracy, rooting out foreign interference and taking action against those who seek to divide us.

Future generations deserve to look back at this point in time as the moment we chose to act to protect and strengthen our democracy, not stand by while it was tested.

Vice President JD Vance brushed off manosphere podcaster Joe Rogan’s comment about MAGA followers being “dorks.”

“It becomes a movement of a bunch of fucking dorks because a lot of them are dorks,” Rogan told guest Dave Smith on Thursday’s episode of his podcast. “A lot of them, these really weird, fuckin’ uninteresting, unintelligent people that have got something they cling to — and there’s a lot of people that are just real genuine patriots, and they’re all lumped into this one group and you got to accept the dorks, too? Fuck that!”

Vance dismissed Rogan’s comments in an interview with right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson that aired on Saturday.

“I think we have many, many fewer dorks than the far left, but everybody’s got some dorks. We love our dorks. We love our cool kids. We love anybody who wants to save the country,” Vance told the MAGA mouthpiece, who has been criticised online for being “cringe as fuck” and has referred to Trump as “Daddy.”

The vice president also responded to Rogan’s suggestion that Hillary Clinton’s immigration stance made her “more MAGA than MAGA.”

“I did not see Joe say this. I’m going to text Joe, because that is that is definitely wrong,” Vance said.

Rogan’s criticism of MAGA comes amid an onslaught of White House social media posts that promote the administration’s agenda, particularly the war in Iran, through pop culture, sports, or video game references. A senior White House official called the posts “cringe” and embarrassing in an interview with MS Now published on Friday.

Vance himself has also faced cringe allegations, as has Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose workout video with Kid Rock was met with mockery.

Trump jokingly admitted at a Saudi-backed investment conference in Miami Friday that he that he likes to “hang around with losers.”

“It’s a good thing to have a lot of losers. I always like to hang around with losers, actually, ’cause it makes me feel better,” Trump said. “I hate guys that are very, very successful and you have to listen to their success stories. I like people that like to listen to my success.”

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s golf habit has now cost US taxpayers at least $101.2 million in travel and security expenses since his return to office, a figure that is two-thirds of his first-term golf total and has him on track to spend $300 million by the end of his second term, according to a HuffPost analysis.

Trump’s arrival at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Saturday morning marks his 56th visit there since his 2025 inauguration and his 110th day on a golf course that he owns — meaning he has played golf on more than one-quarter of his days since returning to the presidency.

“At a time when gas prices are spiking and Americans across the country find themselves in an ever-worsening affordability crisis, the president has burned through over $100 million in taxpayer money in order to make promotional appearances at his golf courses and hobnob with millionaires and billionaires,” said Jordan Libowitz with the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington watchdog group. “If his goal were to help struggling Americans out, one thing he could try is stop spending their money going to his golf courses.”

Trump needed two full years to hit the $100 million mark in his first term, during which he played golf a total of 293 days at his own courses at a cost to taxpayers of $151.5 million. HuffPost has based its figures for transportation and security for Trump’s golf trips on a report to Congress during his first term in office.

In this second term, Trump has made 17 trips exclusively to his Mar-a-Lago country club home in Palm Beach, which is close to his courses in West Palm Beach and Jupiter. He has made seven more trips to Mar-a-Lago that included at least one additional stop. Last weekend, for example, Trump flew from Florida to Memphis for a speech before returning to Washington.

He has made eight trips to his course in Bedminster, New Jersey, at a cost of $1.1 million each and five to his resort in Doral, Florida, which cost $2.7 million each.

Of his regular golf destinations, Mar-a-Lago is by far the most expensive for him to visit, at $3.4 million a trip, because of the expense of patrolling both the Atlantic Ocean off the Palm Beach coast, as well as the Intracoastal Waterway that separates the barrier island from the mainland. When Trump is present, a Coast Guard ship is stationed offshore, and smaller law enforcement vessels with guns mounted on their bows are in the Intracoastal.

His most expensive trip to date has been the $9.7 million one he took to his resorts in Scotland last summer, which included participation in the grand opening of a new course at his Aberdeen property — an event for his for-profit business that the White House’s government staff helped promote.

In recent weeks, the White House has begun categorising Trump’s golf outings as “executive time.” That phrase also appears in his public schedule almost daily.

When asked if that means that Trump is participating in some form of leisure activity in each of those instances, the White House press office responded with the unsigned statement: “Executive time refers to executive time.”

HuffPost’s analysis uses methodology and figures from a 2019 Government Accountability Office report on Trump’s golf trips early in his first term. That report found that four trips to Mar-a-Lago in early 2017 cost taxpayers $13.6 million, and then broke down that total into components like additional security expenses, the costs to fly Air Force One, and the need to transport motorcade vehicles using expensive C-17 cargo planes.

In his second term, the major drivers of the high cost for the president’s hobby ― the flights on Air Force One, the need for the Air Force C-17 transports, the salaries for those protecting the president ― have not diminished. Indeed, they have likely increased.

Because the salaries for military service members and law enforcement officers generally have not kept pace with the consumer price index, HuffPost did not inflate the figures to current dollars. The actual costs and totals, nevertheless, are certainly higher than HuffPost’s unadjusted 2019 numbers.

Prior to his election in 2016, Trump spent years criticising former President Barack Obama’s golf outings, and during his first campaign, he promised he would be too busy to play golf. Then, following his 2020 election loss and failed coup attempt, Trump repeatedly criticised his successor, Joe Biden, for his frequent weekend trips to his home in Delaware.

But Obama’s taxpayer golf tab was a small fraction of Trump’s because Obama mainly played the course at Joint Base Andrews, a short motorcade ride from the White House. And Biden’s trips home used either the smaller version of Air Force One or a Marine One helicopter. Both cost far less to operate than the $273,063 per hour the GAO found it costs to fly the larger, modified Boeing 747 that Trump takes on his Florida golf trips.

Zendaya has been on one hell of a run lately, with a line-up of five massive movie and TV releases coming out in 2026 alone.

However, she revealed earlier this week that she’s looking to make a major change next year.

In a recent with Fandango, the Emmy winner said she’s planning to take a much-needed break from Hollywood after being booked and busy in 2026, after appearing in the upcoming projects The Drama, Dune: Part Three, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, The Odyssey and the third season of Euphoria.

Zendaya claimed: “I’ll tell you what, after this, I’m disappearing for a little bit. I’m going to have to go into hiding for just a little bit.”

Joking that she hopes “people don’t get sick of me” after her stream of releases, she warmly thanked her fans for their continued support.

“I really appreciate everyone who supports any of the movies or supports my career in any kind of way. I’m deeply appreciative,” she added.

Zendaya’s fans don’t have to panic about her hiatus, though, because she is already set to return to the big screen in 2027 for Shrek 5, alongside returning cast members Mike Myers and Cameron Diaz.

The announcement about Zendaya’s impending intermission comes amid swirling rumours that she recently quietly tied the knot with her fiancé and Spider-Man co-star Tom Holland.

The gossip further erupted earlier this month after Zendaya was spotted wearing what appeared to be a wedding band on her left hand at the 2026 Oscars and Paris Fashion Week. Zendaya and Tom have reportedly been engaged since late 2024.

While the Marvel stars have neither directly addressed nor confirmed the rumours about their nuptials, the couple’s reps also didn’t immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.

Appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! earlier this month, the US talk show host told Zendaya that “the internet has gone berserk with stories” about her possibly being married to Tom.

The actor cheekily responded with a smile: “Really? I haven’t seen any of that.”

Zendaya then addressed the faux AI images depicting her supposed wedding ceremony that have been making the rounds online in recent weeks.

“Many people have been fooled by them,” she told the comic. “While I was just out and about in real life and people are like, ‘Oh my God, your wedding photos are gorgeous,’ and I was like, ‘Babe, they’re AI. They’re not real.’”

Netflix’s new horror series Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen has already drawn comparisons to genre classics like Rosemary’s Baby and Carrie thanks to its nightmarish themes.

Created by Haley Z Boston, the writer of another Netflix horror Brand New Cherry Flavour, and produced by the Duffer Brothers (of Stranger Things fame), the series follows the unnerving events leading up to a young couple’s wedding.

If you’ve dared to watch it, you might have spotted one or two familiar faces among the cast. Wondering which of their past jaunts you’ve seen them in? Here’s a quick guide to where you could have spotted them before…

You’re most likely to recognise Camila Morrone from her Emmy-nominated performance in the series Daisy Jones & The Six, where she played band photographer Camila Dunne, the wife of Sam Claflin’s character.

More recently, Camila appeared in the second series of The Night Manager as Colombian businesswoman Roxana Bolaños, a reluctant ally of Tom Hiddleston’s Jonathan Pine.

Over on the big screen, you might have seen her in the Eli Roth thriller Death Wish, Never Goin’ Back, Marmalade, Gonzo Girl or Mickey And The Bear.

Adam DiMarco is best-known for playing the socially-awkward-yet-immensely-privileged Albie Di Grasso in The White Lotus’ second outing (yes, the Sicily season).

He currently stars as Peter in Prime Video college comedy series Overcompensating, and has also been seen in Pillow Talk, The Good Doctor, The Order, The Magicians and Charmed.

This isn’t Gus’ first foray into the horror world, as she’s probably most well-known for playing Gaynor opposite Courteney Cox in the comedy-horror series Shining Vale.

Gus has also appeared in Netflix’s 2025 miniseries Black Rabbit as hostess Mel, and had a recurring role in the Apple TV+ Dickinson, which stars Hailee Steinfeld as the writer Emily Dickinson.

You might have also caught her in The Last Frontier, The Blacklist, Insatiable or The Mist, as well as movies like I’m Thinking Of Ending Things, Plan B, Giving Birth To A Butterfly, Happiness For Beginners and Asleep In My Palm.

British actor and writer Karla Crome is a regular on telly, following her major breakthrough in the E4 series Misfits, playing Jess in seasons four and five.

Since then, she’s gone on to appear in Lightfields, Prisoners’ Wives, The Level, You, Me And The Apocalypse, The Victim and Carnival Row.

She also played Lucy in Daisy May Cooper’s BBC series Am I Being Unreasonable?, as well as Pattie Walker in the much talked about Netflix show Toxic Town and Bella in Harlan Coben’s Lazarus.

Jeff had his major breakthrough playing Moishe Lefkovitch in the Emmy-nominated Netflix miniseries Unorthodox.

You might have also seen him in Park Chan-wook’s acclaimed BBC spy series The Little Drummer Girl, which also starred Florence Pugh and Alexander Skarsgård.

He has also had roles in TV productions Oslo, Keep Breathing, The Calling, and in German horror film Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes.

A fixture on our screens since the 1970s, Jennifer’s big break was in teen movie Fast Times At Ridgemont High.

She’s perhaps best known for her role in iconic ’90s thriller Single White Female, where she played the unhinged roommate Hedy opposite co-lead Bridget Fonda.

She later picked up a Golden Globe and Academy Award nomination for her depiction of fugitive “Crazy” Daisy Domergue in Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight.

You might have also seen her in many of the other projects in her vast filmography, which includes big hitters like Last Exit To Brooklyn, Miami Blues, The Machinist, Annihilation, Possessor, The Jacket, Synecdoche, New York, Margot At The Wedding and In The Cut.

TV fans will know Jennifer for her playing Elsa in Netflix comedy Atypical, as well as roles in Fargo, Weeds, Revenge, Twin Peaks: The Return, Patrick Melrose, The Affair, Lisey’s Story and Hunters.

Ted Levine has a certain knack for roles that make your blood run cold, and is most famous for playing serial killer Buffalo Bill in everyone’s favourite cannibal film The Silence Of The Lambs.

He’s also appeared in Heat, Shutter Island, The Hills Have Eyes, Memoirs Of A Geisha, American Gangster and The Report, balancing it out with roles in lighter titles like Flubber, Jurassic Park: Fallen World and The Fast And The Furious.

Ted is also a big name in TV, and you might know him for playing Leland Stottlemeyer in 2000s show Monk or for his appearances in Ray Donovan, Wonderland, Luck, The Bridge, Mad Dogs, The Alienist and Mayfair Witches.

Croatian-Danish actor Zlatko is most recognisable for playing Russian oligarch Dimitry in the dark comedy Triangle of Sadness.

You might have also seen him in films like The Bride, 2012, Wolfs, Rumours, Mayday, Bleeder, 2025’s Superman and the Pusher trilogy.

Zlatko is less well-known for his TV work, but you might still recognise him from Wonder Man, Copenhagen Cowboy, Snatch or 1864.

What with being a child, Sawyer doesn’t have too many roles under his belt just yet.

However you might have spotted him in medical drama The Good Doctor, after it gained a new audience when it was added to Netflix at the start of the year.

All eight episodes of Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen are now streaming on Netflix.

Thanks to his leading performance in the box office smash Project Hail Mary, Ryan Gosling is once again the name on everyone’s lips right now.

But long before he was blasting off for his latest sci-fi adventure, the Barbie star had already proved that he was one of the most bankable – and versatile –performers in Hollywood.

From his Oscar-nominated turn in dreamy musical La La Land to his beloved performance as Noah in perennial tearjerker The Notebook to more intense projects like Drive, everyone will surely have their favourites from Ryan’s back catalogue.

The former child star (and ex-Mouseketeer) Ryan has been in the business a long time, meaning that there are plenty of TV series and films on his CV that might have slipped under your radar.

From an early appearance in a classic 2000s kids show to tense courtroom dramas, here are 11 of the Canadian star’s roles that you’d probably forgotten about…

If you’re a 90s kid, the mere thought of the Goosebumps theme tune, with its eerie piano opening, is probably still enough to give you nightmares. Child star Ryan appeared in the classic season one episode Say Cheese And Die in 1995, based on the novel by R. L. Stine, and played Greg, a youngster who chances upon an old camera lying around and becomes something of an amateur photographer.

Things take a spooky turn, however, when the photos start to predict unpleasant goings-on. When Greg snaps a picture of his dad’s car, it gets damaged in an accident. And, in the most sinister twist of all, when he photographs his friend Shari, she doesn’t appear in the picture, and later goes missing. The chances are that Goosebumps is a little (OK, a lot) less scary than you remember it, but it’s still plenty of nostalgic fun.

When Ryan was just 17, he was cast as the lead in this epic kids’ series, inspired by the myths of ancient Greece. It’s all about the adventures of, well, a young Hercules, following him as he learns how to become a great warrior under tutelage of a centaur named Cheiron.

He soon makes friends with Prince Jason (of Jason And The Argonauts fame) and an ex-con named Iolaus, but at the same time, his half-brother Ares, god of war, keeps trying to kill off Hercules, so that he’ll be restored in their father Zeus’ father.

The series, which comprised 50 episodes and ran from 1998 to 1999, required Ryan to relocate from Canada to New Zealand for filming; once there, he took martial arts lessons with the same trainer who taught Lucy Lawless for her role in Xena: Warrior Princess.

One of Ryan’s first ever film roles came in Remember The Titans, the 2000 movie which tells the true story of Herman Boone (played by Denzel Washington), the coach who attempted to integrate the football team at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, in the early 1970s.

He plays Alan Bosley, one of the white players on the team, whose father kicks off when he’s replaced by Donald Faison’s Petey Jones; Alan, however, is much more pragmatic – he just wants what’s best for his squad, and ends up telling his coaches that Petey is much more deserving of a spot on the pitch than him. When he finally ends up getting called back to play, he excels. Oh, and he also gets to channel that Kenergy in one memorable dance scene.

Ryan plays Daniel Balint, a violent neo-Nazi, in this hard-hitting film from 2001, which is loosely based on a true story. However, Daniel is hiding a secret from his co-conspirators: his family are Jewish, and he was once a yeshiva student, who spent his days reading Rabbinic literature. After questioning his faith, and surprising his teachers with some orthodox interpretations of the scripture, Daniel has turned against his heritage in a truly shocking way.

Given the themes it grapples with, The Believer certainly doesn’t make for light viewing, but Ryan earned plenty of praise for his performance, with Variety hailing him as “outstanding” in a “difficult leading role”.

Here’s another one with pretty harrowing subject matter. The United States of Leland – released in 2003 – sees Ryan play a shy, meek young man who, we learn at the start of the film, has committed a shocking and brutal act, killing the disabled brother of his former girlfriend.

While he is in prison awaiting a trial, a teacher at the facility (played by Don Cheadle) attempts to understand why he did it, and decides to write about the case.

This indie movie from 2002, which was a contender for the Grand Jury Prize at that year’s Sundance Film Festival, sees Ryan take on another troubled young man role. “It’s not that I’m attracted to dark roles,” he told New York Magazine at the time. “I’m just attracted to good writing, and these are the best scripts that I’ve read.”

This time, he’s Roy Chutney, a high school senior with a fraught family life. His father’s suicide leaves him devastated, and things don’t improve when he loses his prized place on the high school football team soon after.

However, Roy’s sporting prowess catches the attention of local oddball Gideon (played by David Morse), who heads up an unofficial local football team and has soon recruited the youngster to join his squad. It’s the pair’s performances that make the film, according to the critics, with one TV Guide reviewer writing: “The film’s real strength lies in two excellent performances, from veteran morse and up-and-comer Gosling.”

Inspired by the Leopold and Loeb murder case, in which two students kidnapped and murdered a young teenager in a cold-blooded attempt to pull off the ‘perfect crime’, Murder By Numbers sees Ryan play Richard, a high school kid who’s wealthy, popular, clever – and psychotic.

Along with his friend Justin (Michael Pitt), he sets out to commit murder just to see whether they can get away with it, planting evidence that implicates their drug dealer. Detective Cassie Mayweather (played by Sandra Bullock) is assigned to the case with her new police partner (Ben Chaplin). She is convinced of the pair’s guilt, but the evidence points in other directions, and the boys seem to have alibis.

Even if you’ve forgotten the 2002 movie, you might remember that Ryan and Sandra went on to date for almost two years after meeting on set. The actor later suggested that their careers in the spotlight made things difficult, telling The Times: “Show business is the bad guy. When both people are in show business it’s too much show business. It takes all of the light, so nothing else can grow.”

This mind-boggling 2005 psychological thriller will probably leave you scratching your head. Ryan stars as Henry, a depressed student who is paired up with a new psychiatrist, Sam, played by Ewan McGregor, when his usual practitioner is suddenly put on leave. Henry believes he has the power to predict future events, and tells stories about his family that don’t seem to add up. When he disappears one night, Sam feels compelled to try and track down his troubled patient.

The film, which was written by future Game Of Thrones co-showrunner David Benioff, ended up being a huge box office bomb, and the reviews weren’t great either. Perhaps this is one for the most dedicated Gosling completists only…

In 2007, a few years on from his star-making role in The Notebook and several months after picking up his first Oscar nomination for Half-Nelson, Ryan appeared in this courtroom thriller. He played a hotshot deputy district attorney who goes head to head with Anthony Hopkins’ Ted Crawford, a man charged with shooting his wife after discovering that she was having an affair with a police detective.

Ryan initially turned the part down, but changed his mind when he learned that he’d be appearing opposite legendary actor Anthony. Clearly the decision paid off, as USA Today claimed that “watching a veteran like Hopkins verbally joust with one of the best young actors in Hollywood is worth the price of admission”.

Before true crime series The Jinx, there was All Good Things, a crime drama inspired by the life of property heir Robert Durst. Ryan plays real estate scion David Marks, whose relationship with wife Katie (Kirsten Dunst) takes a dark turn; when she attempts to dig dirt on David’s family to gain leverage in their separation, she completely vanishes. Years later, David is under suspicion for a series of murders, and for Katie’s disappearance.

The 2010 film (and perhaps Ryan’s portrayal) proved an unlikely hit with Durst, who offered to sit down with its director Andrew Jarecki for a series of interviews, after having previously refused to speak to journalists. The recordings would eventually form the basis of HBO docuseries The Jinx; the day before the final episode aired, Durst was arrested for the murder of his friend Susan Berman, and was later convicted, sentenced to a lifetime in prison.

If all you can recall of The Ides Of March is a hazy memory of that striking film poster featuring Ryan holding a copy of Time magazine up to one side of his face, with George Clooney on the cover, here’s a quick refresher.

In this 2011 political thriller, which is George’s fourth directorial effort, Ryan plays Stephen Meyers, the campaign manager for charming Democratic governor Mike Morris (played by George). He’s idealistic and believes that Mike is the right man for the job – but his relationship with an intern, played by Evan Rachel Wood, will kickstart a chain of events that will throw his convictions into question.

At 8pm, a sold-out crowd was waiting for me to walk onstage.

At 8:05pm, I had to stab a needle into my stomach.

I was backstage, doubled over in pain, a heating pad taped to my lower back, trying to steady my hand long enough to inject an IVF trigger shot into a stomach already bruised from weeks of hormones.

The audience was laughing, sipping drinks and waiting for a comedy show to start. I was trying to jab a needle into myself while silently praying the pain ripping across my hips and spine would ease enough for me to stand upright under the stage lights.

When I asked the stage manager if we could hold the house for five minutes, he rolled his eyes, assuming, I’m sure, that I needed extra time for mascara. When he saw the needle, his jaw dropped. He probably thought I was doing drugs. In a way, I was. Just not the fun kind.

A few months earlier, at 34 years old, I’d been told my eggs were “running out,” which sent me into a spiral. If I wanted any chance of having a biological child, the doctor said, I needed to start IVF immediately.

How could that be? My mind quickly raced through every life decision I’d made. Maybe I shouldn’t have chased a career as a performer. Maybe I should have saved more money. Maybe I should have had a baby at 20 like some of my friends.

Now, instead, I was backstage injecting hormones into my body and hoping it would cooperate. The thing is, my body had been trying to tell me something for almost two decades. No one was listening.

When I was 16 years old, I went to the doctor because my periods were so painful I sometimes couldn’t stand upright.

“It’s normal,” I was told. “Some women just have painful periods.”

The solution? Birth control. My mom, wanting to help her daughter feel better, agreed. Maybe the birth control pill would help. So I started taking it. And I stayed on it for 17 years. Still, the pain never disappeared. It just became quieter.

Meanwhile, new symptoms crept in: a swollen belly, fibroids, exhaustion, brain fog, low hormone levels. Every doctor told me some version of the same thing.

“This is just what women go through.”

They weren’t trying to be dismissive. They were just … uninformed. Just like I was.

The IVF cycle I injected backstage that night didn’t work. No eggs grew. None were retrieved. That failure pushed me to search for an answer again. Eventually, a fertility specialist noticed something odd about my ovaries, particularly the right one. She referred me to a surgeon in New York City.

Within days, I was sent for an MRI.

The surgeon looked at my images and said something that stunned me: “You have a dermoid tumour engulfing your right ovary and extending upward toward your chest cavity.”

He also suspected something else – endometriosis, a word I had never even heard until that point. I now know that endometriosis is a condition in which tissue similar to the uterine lining grows in other areas of the body, and that it can cause fertility issues, among other symptoms.

Then he asked a question that felt almost absurd: “Are you in pain?”

My answer was simple. “Always.”

Within 24 hours of that scan, I was in surgery. When I woke up, it felt like I had taken a quick nap, but the surgery had lasted more than 90 minutes.

During that time, the doctor removed a dermoid tumour wrapped around my ovary, several fibroids, stage 3 endometriosis spread across my reproductive organs, and endometriosis covering parts of my bowels and even my appendix, which was coated in endometrial tissue.

Suddenly years of confusing symptoms made sense. The pain during my period. The stabbing sensation when going to the bathroom. The exhaustion. The swelling. All of it.

Then the doctor smiled and said something I’ll never forget.

“Your eggs aren’t bad. They were just being suffocated. I saved your ovary. You’ll be pregnant one day.”

I burst into tears in my hospital bed.

My husband had been sitting in the waiting room, terrified. He later told me the surgeon took time to explain everything to him – what had been discovered, what had been removed and what the future might hold. But there was another reality waiting for us. These kinds of surgeries are often not fully covered by insurance. Medical bills drained our bank account faster than we could say, “Insurance doesn’t cover that.”

Still, I was lucky. Because I finally had an answer.

Endometriosis affects roughly one in 10 women worldwide. Yet many of us go years, even decades, without diagnosis. We are told our pain is normal. We are prescribed birth control. We are told to push through.

We smile through meetings. We power through presentations. We perform onstage while pain radiates through our bodies. The world doesn’t see the heating pad, the injections or the quiet tears in dressing rooms and bathroom stalls.

Years later, I finally heard the sound I had prayed for: my baby’s first cry. At that moment, every surgery, injection, bruise and backstage breakdown suddenly made sense. They weren’t random hardships. They were part of my path.

I still live with endometriosis, and I’m still in pain sometimes. Today, as I write this, I’m wearing a heating pad. But now I know what is happening, and I know how to manage it – through diet, stress management and working with doctors who actually understand the disease.

I’m sharing this story because somewhere, another woman is being told her pain is “just normal”. To her I want to say: Keep asking questions. Keep advocating for yourself. Keep searching for answers. And most importantly, you’re not alone.

Candice Guardino is a writer and performer. Through humor and storytelling, she explores family, resilience and finding light in life’s hardest moments. She is also a fertility and endometriosis advocate. Follow her on Instagram @CandiceGuardino or learn more at www.candiceguardino.com.

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