Goldie Hawn: Pandemic is worse than 9/11 for children's mental health
Goldie Hawn believes the impact of the coronavirus pandemic has been worse for children's mental health than 9/11.
The Overboard star launched her MindUp scheme — teaching mindfulness techniques to children — in the aftermath of the global terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York in 2001. But she said after a year of being "incarcerated" in their homes during lockdown, children are in even greater need of help with their mental health.
Hawn, 75, told Good Morning Britain: "When this pandemic happened it gobsmacked everyone. We didn’t know how to handle our children, we’re dealing with ourselves – so many issues with parenting and how do I handle this. It’s a plethora of problems.”
Read more: Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell reveal they have never felt the need to marry
Asked if she though it had a bigger impact than 9/11 she said: "Yes I do. They basically were incarcerated in their own homes. There was frustration, probably in some ways very stressed parenting.
"Children didn’t feel safe oftentimes, they couldn’t see their friends, social development for their neuro growth, it didn’t quite happen."
But she added: “I don’t believe that the time period they went through [in the pandemic] is going to be a lasting damaging effect, I think we have to learn obviously how to deal with it. That period of time can be made up.”
Actress @goldiehawn, who launched MindUP to help children learn mindfulness techniques, agrees with @campbellclaret that the impact Covid has had on the mental health of children is 'worse than the impact 9/11 had on American children.' pic.twitter.com/xzH6ZqnBan
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) May 11, 2021
The First Wives Club star revealed that she battled her own depression and anxiety at the age of 21 as a result of her rising fame.
Hawn confessed she had only aspired to be a dance teacher, but was propelled to stardom after winning a Best Supporting Oscar for her role in 1969's Cactus Flower, and started to feel like she couldn't leave the house.
The Private Benjamin star said: “When I was young, I became depressed. I was 21, rising to success, it’s a very difficult thing. I didn’t necessarily want that. In doing so, I was very depressed and I had a lot of these issues where I couldn’t even go outside in public.
"This is something that for me I worked through. I went to a doctor, I went to a psychologist, I learned about quieting my mind and what happens to the brain, I studied the brain.
She added: “Happiness is a choice. Unfortunately, I didn’t want to be a big deal. I wanted to go home… I wanted to be a dance school teacher. I did have a plan. So I didn’t have delusions of grandeur on any level, I was extremely realistic. The problem was, I was a dancer. And then things changed."
Read more: Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell reflect on their 37-year romance
Hawn is mother to How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days star Kate Hudson, and has been in a relationship with Hollywood actor Kurt Russell since 1983.
Watch: Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell explain why they've never got married
