Julie Andrews Says Therapy 'Saved My Life'

Anyone can benefit from therapy — even cheerful, umbrella-wielding nannies.

Julie Andrews says that going to therapy was life-saving after she split from her first husband in 1967. At the time, the Mary Poppins star was struggling to clear her head, and the late director Mike Nichols suggested she find a therapist.

“Sadly, I separated from my lovely first husband,” Andrews, 84, told Stephen Colbert on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. “And separations were always inevitable and the marriage was over and my head was so full of clutter and garbage. Believe it or not, it was Mike Nichols who really tipped me into wanting to go to therapy.”

Andrews said that Nichols’ healthy mindset encouraged her to go through with it.

“He had been, and he was so sane, and funny and clear,” she said. “He had a clarity that I admired so much. I wanted that for myself. And I didn’t feel I had it, so I went and got into it and it saved my life, in a way.”

The Sound of Music star decided to share that she went to therapy in her new memoir, Home Work, after realizing that others may benefit from her speaking out.

“The truth is, Stephen, why not [share it]? If it helps anybody else have the same idea,” she said.

Plus, Andrews said, therapy doesn’t have the same negative stigma as it did in past decades.

“These days, there’s no harm in sharing it,” she said. “I think everybody knows the great work it can do. And anybody that is lucky enough to have it, afford it and take advantage of it, I think it would be wonderful.”

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