You write about both your children, Vanessa Vadim and Troy Garity, in the book, and also your adopted daughter, Lulu [whose full name is Mary Williams]. You quote them quite a bit. How do they feel about the extremely personal, revealing nature of what you've written, and about being part of it?
[Vanessa] doesn't like me to speak for her, so I won't. I gave the book, before I turned it in to my editor, to all my children, who gave me notes and asked me to go deeper into some things and to cut other things, and I did.
What were some things where they said, Go further with this?
Well, with both the writing of my marriage to [Roger] Vadim and the writing of my marriage to Tom Hayden. For example, my stepdaughter, Nathalie Vadim, who I consider part of my family — when I showed it to her, she said, ''I read this and I don't understand why you loved him.'' It made me realize I had taken for granted that people would know. So that made me go deeper into that and really explore it. The same thing happened with my daughter Mary Williams, Lulu, when I showed her what I'd written about Tom. Tom was a father figure [to her]. And she talked [to me] about all the things that he had meant to her, and how she saw him. And so that made me go deeper into my heart about Tom.
You talk a lot about how bad you feel that you weren't a better mother to your first child, Vanessa.
You know, it's difficult for a woman to give birth to a child before she's given birth to herself. And it's not always a question of chronology. It's obviously more often true for young teen mothers. I wasn't a young teen mother — I had Vanessa at 31. But I was a wandering spirit. I was still searching for myself. And I was not present enough as a parent for her. That again, I think, is a reason I work with young parents now. I'm teaching what I need to learn.
