Hillary and Chelsea Clinton know what it takes to be ‘Gutsy’

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

At a time when there is much discussion around politics and women’s rights, one of the most famous figures in both of those arenas is celebrating the courage of women.

Hillary Clinton and her daughter Chelsea Clinton have teamed up with Apple TV+ for the eight-episode docuseries “Gutsy,” based on their New York Times bestseller, “The Book of Gutsy Women.”

The pair talked to CNN this week about the series and heir own gutsy moments.

“In my private life, as I’ve said before, staying in my marriage was really gutsy, it was a hard decision,” Hillary Clinton said. “It took a lot of prayer and thought and counseling. I’m very glad I made the decision, I have no regrets, but it was gutsy because everyone else in the world had an opinion.”

“On the public, running for president,” she added. “I mean gosh, it was like being on the highest tight rope with no net because no [woman] had ever done it before and it was filled with all types of unprecedented challenges and issues. But I’m so grateful I got a chance to do that.”

Chelsea Clinton, who grew up with tremendous scrutiny when her father Bill Clinton served as President from 1993 to 2001, said the guttiest thing she has ever done has been “to lead my life.”

“I was a public figure from the moment I was born because of the choices my parents made professionally, publicly, politically,” Clinton, now 42 and a mother of three children, added. “So from the time I was a little girl, I was aware that people had opinions about kind of what I should be doing and what was appropriate for me to be doing.”

The heightened judgment and scrutiny many women face is a big part of the series as the mother-daughter duo travel the world talking to women, both famous and not, about their lives, careers and thoughts.

The first episode takes on women and humor. We learn that Chelsea Clinton grew up with a love of knock-knock jokes and a complicated relationship with comedy, thanks to being lampooned as a child on shows like “SNL.”

Another episode includes rapper Megan Thee Stallion and talk turns to haters.

Chelsea Clinton told CNN she was inspired by how the rapper refuses to let haters stop her joy. It’s a lesson she has learned as she often reminds herself that “the most hateful people I’ve never met, they don’t know me.”

“Their commentary as both substance and demeanor, often with a lot of cruelty and bile, is about them and not about me,” the younger Clinton said. “It’s not about me, it’s a reflection on them.”

Hillary Clinton said she learned early in her public life that she should “take criticism seriously, but not personally.”

“If somebody has a legitimate point to make then I should lean from it,” she said. “But so much of what goes on in the world today, particularly politics, is nothing but personal destruction.”

So it was important to the Clintons that they highlight the stories of modern remarkable women, as they did with some of the historical figures they featured in their book.

Hillary Clinton believes viewers will find inspiration in their new series.

“I think one of the things we hope in the series is that people who are maybe down, or maybe struggling or worried about criticism that they get, will find ways of dealing with it, whether it’s from Megan Thee Stallion or from Chelsea and me,” she said.

“Gutsy” premieres Friday on Apple TV+.

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