You're listening to I Choose Me with Jenny Garth. Hi. Everyone, welcome to the I Choose Me Podcast. This podcast is all about the choices we make and where they lead us. I have such a good guest today, but before we get into that, I have an exciting announcement you guys. I am hosting our very first I Choose Me Live women's empowerment event right here in Los Angeles on Saturday,
January eleventh, and I want you to come. The whole I Choose Me movement started as three little words in a script on Beverly Hills, Nana two and to oh. It has now evolved into something so much more than that. It is a message that I feel so passionate about and it needs to continue to be amplified. The One Day Lady Party will be focused on self care and self love. We're going to have a great panel, powerful women, lunch cocktails. It is going to be amazing. So start
the new year off right by choosing yourself. Or you can make it a fun getaway trip to beautiful California with your friends. I don't know, whatever it takes, just get here. I can't wait to see you. All tickets are on sale now, and all of the info will be in our show notes. I hope you come. My guest today is a comedian and actress, a best selling author, and the host of her own Emmy nominated and NAACP Image Award winning talk show. She's also the co host
of the hilarious podcast Too Fuddy Mamas. Please welcome Sherry Sheppard to the podcast.
Hello.
I just loved being on your show recently. It was such a fun, positive experience. Oh and your gorgeous makeup lady. I can't remember her name, Nanni. Yes, she let me hold her beautiful little baby dog.
Ah.
It made me so happy.
I'll tell her that. Yeah.
And we are Q fifty sisters, which is so cool. So I'm really really glad that we get to talk to Dan go a little deep.
Yeah, absolutely, this is fun.
I mean you're basically the poster child for the age of possibility. I mean you've you've had some time to adjust now to this big, you know, next chapter in your life, turning fifty. Yeah, but go back. What was it like as you entered into your fifties?
Horrible? I want I tell you, I'm fifty, I'm fifty seven, and when I turned fifty. I Jinny, I thought my life was over. I thought it was downhill. I just had all of this doom and gloom about what it was going to be like. And I said to my assistant, I don't want anybody to call me. Don't give me the phone. I don't want gifts. I'm going to save my room and cry. And if you even bother me, you're fired, Like Larry, That's how bad it was. And a friend, a dear friend of mine, what he sent
me changed my life. He went to, you know when you can like send your photos to like snapfish, not the cheating website, but it was, you know, you download your photos and you can make a photo book. He had asked me probably six months prior. He said, Cherry, if you were to have a party, who would you invite? Like, who were your top ten friends you'd invite? So I told them. He went to all of those friends and
he said, I'm doing a birthday book for Sherry. Can you write a story of what she means to you and send me a picture? And he created this wonderful book about turning fifty and Jenny, when I opened the book and I saw everybody had a story about what I meant to them. I couldn't stop crying, and immediately my paradigm shifted about being fifty because I thought, this
is the sum total of who I am. I made such a difference in these folks' lives, and if I wasn't around, it would be a real big loss to them. That's what they're saying in these letters. And I just after that, I looked at fifty different. I said, this is it literally was age of possibilities. This is like life is short. Take the bull by the horns, try some stuff you've never tried before. Go for it.
I love this book idea. I'm gonna do that. But yeah, I'm sure that just made you feel so seen and so like everything that you've done so far in this life of yours has had such a beautiful impact on not just people everywhere, but really important people to you personally.
Absolutely, that's a book that I've done for people in my life, and I can see how much it means to them, you know, because you can sit down when you're feeling down and go through this book of the people and what an impact you know you've made. So Yeah, and relationships are important to me.
Yeah, so much has happened to you since you turned fifty, like so many great things. Well, I mean, you have your very own talk show.
Now a talk show, it's more acting has come in. I'm writing a children's book which has been so much fun for me.
What's it about.
It's called The Sunshine Queens, and it's really all of my stories that I go through with my girlfriends and how they lift me up and how we're so close, and we're putting it into a format four an eight year old about confidence, about self esteem, what happens when you fall, how do you get back up? And it's really all of my stories with my girlfriends, and we're putting that in a book with four girls who just
have these great adventures together. And they're called the Sunshine Queens because they all love to smile.
Okay, this is gonna be good.
I'm very excited about it. I mean from the from the beginning to picking the characters and what their hair looks like. And you know, I said, oh, I gotta one's got to have braces because my girlfriend has a visile line that she's always losing her visil line. So you got to get somebody braces. We gotta you know, there's me. You gotta make me. It's a character based on me. So I gotta be a little chubby little you know what, a cute little smile.
Oh, it's like a world of creativity for you.
I love the creativity. I love the sketches and the stories. So I'm very excited about this book.
Well, I'm excited to see it because we need more messaging like that for the youngest of the young. We got to start giving them all this positive stuff that we have learned.
Absolutely just pay you need. You know, having girlfriends is a big deal. I believe we can't move forward without women being undergirding us and encourage and those friends, those deep friendships. This life is like, this is hard going through life.
If you don't have anybody it is You're so right, do you like? How many really close, tight girlfriends do you have?
Not many? You know? I probably five.
That's good. That's a good number.
Probably five girlfriends that I have that are just I'm so we've been really really close. And then now I'm bringing in new people because sometimes you need younger people to keep you young, you know. And I'll meet people on the show like it's just yourself and I'm like, wow, they're so cool, so so cool.
I know, and then you didn't even know, Like, and everybody has something to offer, like something that they can bring into your life that you didn't even see coming.
Like it's not wild absolutely, And that's the thing. If you're open to it, somebody can bring something in your life that is so wonderful, something that you never thought. You can get something from every body, you's got to be open to it.
Yeah, that's the key is being open, staying open, and that's very vulnerable. That's a feeling of you know, that's very scary feeling for a lot of people.
It is because you have to open up and you have to you have to be willing to be hurt. Which nobody who wants to be hurt. Who wants to go into something knowing that you could be hurt. But I think that if you've being if you're willing to open yourself up, that's when you get the maximum from it.
I agree, I agree. I'm curious. You seem so grounded and so confident and so in your body. I love that about you. I always have. Have you ever dealt with imposter syndrome?
You know? I I haven't dealt with it lately. Now I'm really embracing who I am and knowing my place in this world and what I bring is pretty unique. But yeah, even up until a few years ago, always feeling like they're going to find out who I am is not who I portray, and then when they find out, they're not gonna want me. That took a lot to get over. That took a lot to get over. It's a lot of you know, me prayer, knowing that God, God has ordained this in my life, that it's divinely ordered.
It's you know, he gave me a skill set. I mean, I think I had a full blown panic attack before I started the first day of my show.
I can imagine express a lot of pressure.
I had a full blown panic attack. And I said, because we were supposed to you know, everybody who does I'm the only talk show host who does a monologue. Ellen used to do it, but nobody else does it. And they wanted me to do a monologue. And I'm like, oh my gosh, we didn't have a comedy writer. Every talk show host, Jimmy ca Ellen, they all had like they all have like twelve comedy writers who they give them jokes. They feed them NonStop jokes. So for the
first season it was me. Season and a half, it was me coming up with all of my material, and I panicked because I said, what am I supposed to talk about? Like I don't like, how do I come out? Do I come out and go this is a monologue. I'm doing comedy. What do I say? And like, well, I couldn't breathe. My heart was beating, and something said, a voice within said, talk about what Oprah told you, the advice that Oprah gave you, Because I had talked to Oprah that weekend for an hour and she gave
me advice. And I said, I can't talk about Oprah. That was like sacred, that's private, and that voice said, no, there's some very funny stuff that Oprah gave you. The way you look at it, it's funny. And so I asked Oprah, is there some things that I can talk about? And she said, absolutely, do what you want to do. And I came out and I started talking about how nervous I was in my conversation with Oprah and it
was really funny. Oprah was like, oh my god, I didn't know do I say I don't like that, do I? And so I started realizing, you know what this talk show was, It was a blessing. And I have to walk into what has already been written for me, what has already been prepared for me that place, walk in it and be confident. Sherry. You know who you are. You know you have the experience. You've been given the
gift to make people laugh. Lean into it, and right before the door opens when they say welcome, Sherry Shepherd. Some days I feel like, oh, I don't have any jokes. I'm not funny. And my prayer is I always pray for the audience. I pray that God will make them feel better than when they came. And I also pray
for my live audience and the audience that's watching me. God, show them that side of you that is laughter, Show them that side of you that is you laugh straight from your belly, that side of laughter and that side of light, and show them you through me. And I ask for fresh mercy and fresh grace and fresh jokes. And the door opens up, and I'll just walk out and I go, this is what was given to me, And if it was given to me, then He's gonna give me everything to see it through.
That's right, because that's what they say. You're never given something you can't handle.
Absolutely, And I sit in that chair, I don't think about it anymore, sitting in that chair, and jokes just come to me. Funny just comes to me.
Well, that's because you're just funny. I mean, jeez, speaking of funny. Everything that you do, all the things that you're doing, and you still make time to go out there and do comedy shows. Why is it important for you to keep flexing that muscle? And what is it that you love about getting out there on stage and making people laugh.
I love stand up comedy so much. That's my first love. That's what I started doing before I became an actress. I was a legal secretary and I took the other secretaries with me to the world famous comedy store and I got bit by the bug at that comedy club. And if you go by the comedy store right now, it's on Sunset near Lo Sienega. And if you look above the main room, all the way to the right, above the main room door, my name is the third
from the top, Sherry Shepherd. When they painted my name, I was like, oh my gosh, so you can see my name is one of the original comics there, not the original because they had a lot of comics before me.
You started in like nineteen ninety.
Yeah, like probably about eighty nine, and I auditioned twenty three times for Mitzy Shore at the Comedy Store. She made me a regular. What do you talk about? What's your name? Yeah, And I've been a regular there, and I became a regular at the laugh Factory, and a regular at the Improv and a regular at Ice House in Pasadena. So you know, that is my first love. Because I'm on stage, That's kind of what the talk
show reminds me of. I'm by myself, there's nobody else, and I'm sharing stuff that I know that the audience is gone through too. There's somebody in that audience that has children. There's somebody in that audience that has a teenage boy who doesn't want you to come into their bedroom, and their bedroom smells like somebody came in and died. There's five dead people in your son's room. There's somebody
whose son used X way too much. You know. There's somebody in that audience who's been single and they're trying to date and they're going through it, and I love telling those stories. And that's what I get to do on my talk show, an extension of what I do on stage. So I do stand up even still because it's so much fun to go on stage and know that I can make somebody feel better with the story that I'm talking about.
Right, because everybody can relate to you. You're a very relatable, real person.
Thank you.
You can reach so many people. What do you do to prioritize yourself, like your self care?
I'm still working on that, Jenny. I have to say, because this is a unique situation. When I was co hosting on the View, if I didn't feel good, there were four other women who could hold down the fort and they could put a guest host in that place of me, and I could stay home. I didn't have to go visit affiliates. Barbara Walters did that. I didn't. You know, if I couldn't go and see a play that you were doing on Broadway, there was somebody else could fill in and go see that play or read
that book. You have a talk show and it's just you. I have to do all of that myself, and I can't call in sick because if I call him sick. There's two hundred people here that don't work, that don't get paid. If I call in sick, they have to show a rerun, and reruns don't do as well as the original programming. So you know, there's nobody that I can put in to take my place. So it's a lot more responsibility and it doesn't stop after I say, you know, you know, come back tomorrow. Then if there
is somebody that dropped out, they call me. If they're looking for a booking, can you call that person shry if they have to do a you know, change up something. They call me for every aspect of the show. So I'm always on my cell phone to come up with my hot topics. I'm always on the cell phone looking for interesting items. Zoe Kravitz and Channing Tatum broke up. Oh my gosh, that means Lenny krab It is not
taking me to the wedding. I send that to my team and got we gotta I want to talk about this, you know.
Yet, it's a lot of work. It's the Sherry Show.
Come on, It's the Sherry Show. It's like you know, so it never stops. Plus I got my stand up that I'm doing. I'm writing the children's book. Oh did I say I have a nineteen year old son?
Oh wait, what about the Yeah, the mom roll, the biggest royal ever.
Mom. You know, I'm starting to let my son take the train by himself. My son is on the spectrum, the autism spectrum, so I'm letting him take the train by himself. So it's me in between photo shoots or you know, doing a zoom looking at my thing, going him going, mom, I'm here where I'm supposed to be. I just got off the train. So a lot.
It's so much to juggle.
It's a lot to juggle. Jeffrey's older now, so I can do a lot more because he's older. But I used to take him to the comedy clubs with me. I'd be in there with him on my hip. I would take him to the clubs and go go in the back room. So you don't have to hear Mommy say a curse word. But you know now I have to say intentionally on the weekends, we go and grab something to eat. On a Sunday morning, he and I Intentionally, I go, I'm going to go and get a massage. Intentionally,
I say, you know, you have to be intentional about things. Yeah, I asked, somebody, can you take Jeffrey to a Knixt game so I can have time to just go to the movie theater and sit there by myself munch and my popcorn, And that's what I love doing.
Those are all really great things to take care of yourself. But you mentioned something about saying no. I remember you talking about the power of saying no before and it being such a stress reliever. So tell us about the power of no, because it has been a difficult thing for me to learn over the years too.
Yeah, no, because I would get stressed out because I say yes all the time because I had this thing of you know, I wanted people to like me. I don't want to be would be mad at me, so I'll say yes, And what that was doing was putting a lot of stress on me. And then I would
resent that I said yes, but you can't. It's easier, my pastor said one time, it's easier to change a no into a yes, but it's hard to change it yes into a no. And then I was like, ah, now I got to do it, and I tell this person yes, and it was getting stressful and I said Cheer. You gotta put up boundaries because a lot of times when you say no, the person will figure out how to get it done. We keep thinking, oh, the world's gonna fall apart if we don't say yes, but literally,
the world keeps moving, and so does your frustration. And when you say yes too much, you get sick. It even says when the plane, if something happens to the plane, pull that oxygen mask down and take care of yourself first, because if you're not full, you can't take care of anybody. And I had to start saying no. I started out going no, I'm sorry, No, you know I had to do this, and I'd run down everything why I couldn't say yes Now, Jenny, especially at this age, I'm like, Nah, Nope,
you can't do it. It don't work for me. I know I could loan it to you. I know I got the money to loan it to it. No, you're not getting it. I have turned into that untie.
I love that. Yeah, because it sounds scary to say no to people.
I tell young ladies to stand in front of the mirror and practice saying no. Practice five ways to say no. No that doesn't work for me. No, but maybe somebody else can do that. No, maybe at a different time. No, maybe we can go out next week. No, just practice it. It's got it. You got to just start speaking it and saying it. Everything goes where the energy flows is where it goes. So and I've practiced saying no. Now I'm at the point where I go, no, can you
do this on No? No? No? No am my off day? No.
No, I'm gonna try this this technique. I think we should all try this. Let's try all try to say no to ourselves in five different ways. In the mirror.
I'm telling you no now, I say no, Nuka n it. However, I'll say it every night. No. Uh.
Saying no is the ultimate ews me moment.
I think that's it. And you gotta let go of people thinking you're selfish or you don't care. But it's just like to preserve my sanity and my mental health. I can't take all of that on, and I refuse to do it now. Life is too short. I can't remember half the stuff I say yes to, So if I say no, then I can always go back and go you know what, Maybe we can't, but I'll stop myself from doing that. Too, I'll let my no be no.
You made an incredible I choose me moment. I think it was like over a year ago and you decided to get your breast reduction that you shared about that. It was so powerful because I think so many women would probably be really afraid to have that done.
I did it. I've always said, you know, this is what God gave me, So if he gave it to me, why would I cut them? But what happened was it started affecting my body, like they were so heavy, Like I came out of the womb. Every woman in my life, we all came out of the womb as a forty two double D that runs in my family. I don't have hips in a butt. I got boobs. And what was happening was as I got older, they were so heavy, and I would find myself interviewing people like leaning over
because it was so heavy. I tore a part of my rotator cuff, and my chiropractice said, you probably want to think about a breast reduction because you're carrying all of that and it's affecting your rotator cuff. And then I was getting grooves in my shoulders from my bra They were starting, you know, when I was in my thirties, my twenties having these big boobs. Oh, they were sitting up front of my chin. After a while, they started looking like I was going to church. I call them
church lady booth. It was sitting on my knees and it was just like I could you know everything. It just took too long to find something to wear. I think somebody made a joke at a comedy club because they knew me, and they said, Sherry's boobs are so big. She's got like a credit card slide, like you could slide a credit card all the way through. And I'm a comic, I can take a lot. I laughed, but
I said, I'm just tired. I think that. I asked a lot of other people who got breast reductions, and I said, I think my little girl's my best friends. They've always been my best friends. It's time to say bye. And I did a lot of research and I found my lady doctor. She was like amazing and she answered all my questions. And when I went under, I just said, when I go under, you bring me back because I
have a son. Because I think, you know, as we get older, going under scares a heck out of us, cause I don't know if my heart is gonna skip an extra beat or And I just said to her, I looked her in our eyes and I said, I am a mother and I have a child, and when I go under, I need you to bring me back. And she was like, okay, Sherry, I do three thousand of these where you think you're going. I was like, I don't know. I'm just saying I don't need to
be nobody named Peter, Paul, John or Luke. What I'm saying. No. So they did reduce them, and it just feels so much better, like it's lightness. I wish I had done it years ago. I tell people that it's so great. Girl. My areola is it's like a quarter. Used to be like a big used to like a big pancake. Now it's like a little quarter. It's nice.
I got that's quarter size.
Good for you, nice quarter size. And she says, you know you'll have a look little scar. And I said, look, if a man can't take a scar at this age, I don't need them. I'm fine.
Oh h, that's good.
I like you.
You love your scars. That's good.
I love them. These cars made a lot.
I think by you sharing all this and talking about it on your show and everything like there's I think it helps so many people. I know, when I talked about like when I got my hips replaced and I shared that story, so many people just came out of nowhere and wanted to talk about their problems with their hips and how fearful they were of getting a surgery. So I think just you know, talking about it is so powerful.
Yeah, absolutely, of taking the fear out of it, you know, of having it done. And I think that's It's just you have a lot of women who've had to have that done and they feel a little shame at talking about it. But it's something so natural. We all it's
a circle of life that we go through. Things happen, and it's just like, you know, our bodies have done so much for us, but sometimes we got to help them out, yep, to even be better, to live more to you know, I talk about having diabetes all the time. Some people say it's not really sexy. Well, I'm not trying to be sexy. I'm trying to live.
Yeah, my priorities are a little different, things a.
Little different, you know. Yeah, I'm not going. My goal is not to fit into a bikini, but my goal is lived to be able to go to the beach and be healthy.
Feel comfortable. Because you work out like a fiend. I've seen you. We both work out. I've seen your workouts online and you just are such a hard worker. What time do you get up to go to the gym.
I get up at four forty five in the morning. I have to be at the gym. My gym is thirty minutes away, so I have to be there at six in the morning, and it takes me thirty minutes to get there. So I'm there six from six to seven, and then I go straight to work and I literally genmy My goal was, I said, I want working out to be like breathing, like I want to. I want to if I miss a class, I want to like be your to go. And I had to so I
had to change the language. So I would go to the gym and make these videos about oh I hate going, but I went and I said, I got to stop that, So I started changing my language going. I love getting the chance to take care of me and thank you Lord that you're giving me this opportunity for another chance at life and health. And I love how I'm gonna feel after I'm lifting these weights she wants me to do fifteen. I love that my body is just like
taking to this. I kept saying, I love going to the gym, even when I didn't feel like it.
This is so good, this is so good. So changing the dialogue, changing how you speak to certain things, make sure.
Changing how you speak to certain things, and it has worked. I do love going to the gym. Now that's hard, but I just keep going, Cherry, this is gonna be some fun because your body is gonna thank you. You're gonna feel confident, you're gonna be so when I would go and do the show, I feel so good because I even felt like I would say to myself, your body is like leaner. My stomach still look the same. I was like, okay, but it looked leaner.
But you feel strong from within though I feel strong. That's so good, that's so inspirational. Four forty five. Jeez, I get up at six am to be there at seven and my gym is thirty minutes away too. We're nuts. Why don't we just go to like the local gym down the street.
I don't know. I think by showing you know. And sometimes I take the train to my gym. I think that it requires me to show up. If it was close, I could give them an excuse, Oh something happened, ba ba boh. But this, it shows thirty minutes away shows your commitment. You're committed to going because you gotta go far. It takes. If I take a ob back, it takes me forty five minutes to get home, and I fall asleep. If I'm not working, I go to sleep in the uber.
I'm so tired. But I think it helps me keep my amitment. And I go to a woman she's Moroccan and she don't play, and she let me know my time is valuable, so call in more than three times. And you got to find another trainer that keeps me on my feet too.
That's good. Yeah, she's not taking.
But I get up so early because I like to get it out of the weight. Like if I got to go at three o'clock with hair a wig on and makeup on and lashes, I'm not going to do it.
No, no, no, it has to be the first thing for me to It.
Has to be first thing. But you feel I tell people you've never you don't feel bad going after you leave that gym. You don't feel bad that you win, No, and know that the end result is you feel It feels so good and being in this season lifting weights is really really important for our bodies. I think a lot of women don't understand our bones break down as we get older, we start slouching. That's when you know, when you fall and you break your hip, or you
fall and you break your wrist. You sprain your wrist trying to catch your with like, we have to now lift weights to keep our balance. So many benefits from listening, from going to the gym period.
Oh yeah, anything moving your body moving anyway, it's good. Like we can all be like Sherry and give ourselves that appointment first thing in the morning. I think that's that's gonna help a lot.
Yeah. Walking, I love walking, Jenny. I walked four miles the other day. My butt cheek froze up. That left butt cheek was frozen.
Wait were you flexing as you were walking?
I don't know what I was doing. I usually do two miles. I can do one of two miles, but I did four because I was like, well, let me see if I could go a little further. Let me see if I go a little further. And my butt cheek was like, no, go home. But I did it. I did it. I was so happy. I love walking by myself. I used to take Jeffrey with me when I walk, but he complained so much, how long we gotta walk when we're gonna be done. It takes all
the fun out of it. So I walked by myself with only I walked with one ear butt in so I can hear everything else is going on on and I just walk, and I my creative stuff comes. I get to think about things. I love walking. Yeah, that four miles almost took me out. That four miles.
Whoo.
It's a good thing.
You listen to your butt cheek.
I listened to my I always listen to my butt cheeks. They would never let me lead me astray.
Oh my gosh. When I was on your show, we talked about communicating with our exes, and you made me laugh because.
You've got a great relationship with yours.
I mean it took a while, it took a good minute. Girl, But what what what's going on with you at this point in your life? Like, are you open to dating. Are you dating? Are you going to find him husband? Are you put on your own?
That's the best option I am right now. My wish is that Jeffrey Zaid and I could have a good relationship. At the at the moment, it's not there. We communicate by which is kind of hard to do, but that's the way it works, you know. So I would love like you are squad goals for me. With that said, like with dating, at this I'm very open to marriage. I think marriage is an amazing and amazing thing, and you know, it's nice to know you can depend on
your mate. But I've gone through two very public marriages and two very public divorces, and I have for me and nobody else. I lost everything in my first marriage because I did not have a pre nup And when I say everything I was doing, the view broke, like all my money was going to pay expenses for living in New York and going to my attorneys. I hosted a show called The Newlywag Game, and every check they gave me was going to attorneys. So it was awful.
And then the second marriage, it just it costs so much money, even though we had a prenup. That was a great thing, but it cost so much money and I lost everything again, and so having to build up, you know, my money, my finances again, to take care of a child who has special needs that's therapy every week, that's a you know, that's a psychologist, that's he goes to a you know, a special school. That's money, and
to have to build that up again. I just the marriage is just not something that I'm seeking right now, but I'm open to it. So nobody's came to float float on my boat. So right now, I like being single. I like being single and dating. I like being single because I had to learn to date. Jenny, I would date and get married. Yeah, so I had to work with a dating coach and she said, you need to date more than one man. And I went clutch my pearls.
I can't date more than one man. I came up in a religion you dated to get married, and she said, no, Sherry, you need to learn how to date, to just go on a date and have conversation. You need to learn how to date, to just go and have a nice time. You need to learn how to date so that if you get ghosted by one, you're not putting all your eggs in that one basket and love with the first one who gives you some affection. You need to be able to go have a good time and say I
got another date on Thursday. So all your eggs aren't in that one basket. You need to just date and to figure out what you like, who you like, the treatment you want. And that's what I started doing, so Jenny. One day, whenever I would go to town, a different town to do stand up, I'd set up a date and I went at lane time. I had three dates at a breakfast date, a lunch date, and a dinner date.
Oh my god, you're such a good student. By the way.
I went out Now, I was full because everybody took me to a restaurant. But it was very interesting because the first one he was a sheriff. I met him on Instagram. Okay, he was a sheriff. He sent me a DM he said, I'm a I'm a sheriff. Here's pictures of me at the at the you know station. Can I take you out? I said, Okay, you're not a You're not a stalker or nothing, right? He said no. But we we met in a public place. We went out. He was very very much the the man's man, so
he was really jarring to him. So many people came up and wanted to autograph or wanted a picture. You know. He had made reservations at a restaurant for breakfast, but it wasn't open. So there was another restaurant, and he says, oh, that's not open. But I happened to know Candy Burris who owned She owned the restaurant, and I'm like, I don't want to like, I don't want them to think that I'm usurping or but I texted her and I was like, I'm outside. So he's like, we got to
go somewhere else because this is not open. And they came and they they opened it up for us. That was a little bit much for him. Yeah, then he you know, he smoked cigars. He was gorgeous. But I was like, you know what, this is not working. So but I got a lunch date and the lunch day was amazing, so much fun. He took me roller skating, which I love, so he was very thoughtful. We went roller skating and had a great time and he showed
me some moves he taught roller skating. Then I was like, well, that was good, but I have a dinner day tonight.
Oh oh my god.
All this was all on one day and the dinner did I want up? Girl? He was gorgeous. He had his own business and he built roofs. It was a siding business. He built decks and muscles and whoa. He was gorgeous. But he was used to being the gorgeous one and getting all the attention, so he didn't like it. And I thought that was great. We had a good time. He ghosted me, but it was fine when I got ghosted.
Yeah, because you got to learn what works and what doesn't work.
What works. But I have three dates and I was like, it's okay because I'm going to North Carolina and my friends set up a date with somebody else.
This is I love this, Sherry. This is so good.
Yeah, because before I would date and I'd be you know, you day, you have such a great time, and then you go home and you're doing curly cues. You know, you're writing your name with his last name, you know, mister and missus, and I'd be like in love now I want to get married, and it's like yeah, So it was really great dating to see what I liked, and what kind of treatment I liked. I don't want anybody who smoked cigars, and I'm not settling that sheriff
smoked cigars. We got into his car and I felt like cancer was coming. That's a bad joke. I shouldn't. I don't want to offend anybody. But I was like, he smoked so much.
It just smell.
It just smells so bad. And I was like, I can't, I can't do this, and he was, I hope he's not gonna. I'm not saying I don't want anybody not to watch your podcast, Jenny, but he was mudery. So dating is, you know, So for me, I like, I like dating. I like if there's somebody that I date a few times, I like it, and I like and I like not sharing it. I know as a talk show host, I share a lot. But there's some things
I have learned in the season of my life. You have to keep something as special, something that's so special that everybody's not in your Sometimes I think we overshare so much on social media, and then when it goes south, you're scrubbing off the pictures that you had with them. You're asking everybody to respect your privacy, but you've opened the door. And I like that I get to date
because they didn't ask for the fame I did. So it's really nice to be able to go out and just have a really good time and I don't have to talk about it now, talk about the dates that I go on. That there really crazy. But I like being able to just state and have a good time. And if there's somebody I meet, hell maybe I'll talk about them.
If I like him, see what happens.
Yeah.
I always tell my daughters, we'll see. Just think to yourself, we'll see.
We'll see. That's good. I like that. That's really such a great phrase. We'll see, we'll see.
Okay. I like to ask everybody this Sherry Shepherd, before I let you go, what was your last?
I choose me, moment, my last, I choose me, moment, my last, my last, I choose me. Oh, it's so much where I say, I choose me. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. I went to a private island. Somebody gave me their private island to go and just rest. And it was a person that I was seeing and he wanted it to go. He wanted to be like, you know, we can go and we have a great time and
we can do this. And I said, you know what, I want to invite my friends because I don't want to I don't want to be in a romantic thing. I want to go to this island, be able to laugh, giggle, not have to feel like, Oh, I don't want to make you feel like you're not included. I don't want to make you feel like you know, I'm being I want to be, you know, because I took some of my glam team and I'm bossy with them because it worked for me.
It's free to be yourself.
I just want to be myself. And these feelings were very hurt, and I said, I just I want to do a romantic thing. This somebody offered me this private island for seven days, and I wanted to be about me and the people are brought and I want to be silly and I want to be and I want to be able to go back to my hotel room I'm not well, the villa that was on the island, and go to sleep. Yes, I don't want to have to worry about, you know, is he having a good time?
You know? Are you having a Is there anything I could do to make you happy. I don't want none of that. And I chose me and I don't And you know, I was like, and I don't care. I want to go and have a good time. And it felt great and I had a blast with my friends.
Oh, I think that might be one of the best I choose me moments I've ever heard of private island by yourself.
It was a private island and we and had I taken him, everybody would have had a great time with him. But what would have been missing is all of the stories, Like we really talked about our hopes and our dreams, and you know, we stayed up. I one of my dearest friends of twenty two years, Like, I went and we got in the same bed and we talked and giggled like we were schoolgirls. I wouldn't have been able to do that.
Yeah, you just need those trips.
You need those trips. I got to bond with my sister friends.
Oh. I love that for you. I love it. I just love talking to you. I could talk to you forever. And I want to hear about some of those dates going wrong, because those are good.
You're laughing. I need to write a book. I've had some do then I have. Yeah, it's been some. It's been some funny ones. It's been some like okay, this this is not gonna work all right? Oh you didn't tell me there was a Oh there's a you got a girlfriend. Didn't know that.
Little detail you left that little one?
Now? Oh Hi, who are you? You know?
Oh my god, so much fun talking to you, Cherm. I'll let you go. I know you're a busy, busy lady. And thank you for spending some time with us.
Jinny, thank you so much. So when I come to when I come to La, we've got to hang out. I love you you too, girl. Bye bye bye.
Jerry is so funny.
Oh.
I love when I get to connect with her. She's such an inspirational woman. I love what she said about saying no. That word is so powerful, and I know, after walking away from this conversation, what she said is going to stick with me and hopefully empower me to say no more. This week, as I choose myself, speaking of choosing ourselves, as we continue to do that each week, I want to challenge you to making a different first
choice in your morning. Cherry said she chooses to get up at four forty five every morning and drive thirty minutes to the gym. I know a lot of us struggle with looking at our phones as soon as we open our eyes, but we can do better than that. So this week, make a better choice and choose yourself. Maybe start with I don't know, letting the sunshine hit your face, or drink a big glass of cold water, or maybe go on a morning walk with your dog. Take those first few moments or even hour of your
morning to choose yourself. You are worse. Thanks for listening to I Choose Me and don't forget. Tickets are on sale now for my live summon event happening on January eleventh. You can check out all the information along with our social links in our show notes, rate and review the podcast, and use the hashtag I Choose Me. I will be right here next week. I hope you choose to be here too,