I should not have been, but I was surprised to hear Goldie Hawn revealing how she felt when her children left home. She was being interviewed on the Graham Norton TV show last weekend. As you probably know, Goldie is a glamorous Oscar winning actress and film director, who caused controversy by appearing on the cover of Playboy Magazine, at the age of 39 and yet she was expressing the same feelings that many visitors to this site have experienced. She has two sons, a daughter, (Kate Hudson, the actress) one stepson and two grandchildren. She has been with her partner Kurt Russell for over twenty years.

Here is somebody who obviously had plenty to fill her life and yet she did not know how to cope with her children leaving home. In her words, "that empty nest thing is really real. When they left the house it was quiet. I tiptoed up the stairs. I looked down and Kurt was watching TV. I went upstairs – what do I do – nobody to cook for, nobody to do .... it was devastating. It really took me a long time".

Although she has survived two divorces, she would not want to relive that part of her life (children leaving home) – "the part that I look at and wish I did not have to go through that part". It seems that the plans Goldie had made to fill the gap in her life, were not necessarily the answer to her "profound empty experience".

I don't know whether I find Goldie's revelations reassuring or not. If she found it difficult to cope, then how much harder is it for someone leading a more mundane life? Certainly her statement "that empty nest is huge", cannot be disputed.