Friendship across the parenting divide – podcast
Helen Pidd and Alexandra Topping have been close friends for almost 20 years. But struggles with fertility and new motherhood tested their bond to the limit
In the summer of 2006, Helen Pidd met her fellow Guardian journalist Alexandra Topping. It was “a little bit like falling in love”, says Lexy, as the pair bonded over their jobs, through chaotic nights out and on holidays together. Their similarities drew them together, explains Helen: “The two blonde babies of the Guardian newsroom, both from the north-west of England, both a bit gobby.” They told each other everything.
It was a friendship they both cherished, and it was only strengthened as their lives changed. They both fell in love, and Helen left the country and returned. They prided themselves on their ability to speak hard truths, safe in the knowledge that “the other person isn’t going to, you know, strop off into the distance and never speak to you again”.
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