Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio. We're in a very weird pro divorce moment. This American ex Wife is a really popular book among a certain set of women. Okay, they all live in Brooklyn, about how freeing divorces. Even the New York Times made fun of this concept of freedom, though of course they did it from the left. They wrote. Lens, for example, spends much of her book detailing her struggle to get free,
but never feels she needs to define freedom. It is taken as a given that freedom still means the law firm partner in heels, the self made woman with an independent business, the best selling author on book tour, the woman who has shed any residue of the domestic and
has finally come to shine with capitalist achievement. It is not the freedom for a woman to stay home with her child for a year or five, the freedom to stop working after a lifetime toiling in low wage jobs, the freedom for a Filipina nanny to watch her own
children instead of those of her liberated American boss. The freedom to start a farm or a homestead, or engage in the kind of unpaid work ignored by an economy that still values above all else the white collar professional labor long dominated by men, and in fact mostly fails
to recognize other labor as valuable at all. End quote it's bad when the New York Times is making fun of you, and The Atlantic noted divorce is in the literary air lately, but also said Lens's impulse to generalize is so strong that at times her work whiffs of self help. This idea that a woman can only be free as long as she's not in a loving, stable relationship is a weird lie sold to girls, and I think it's getting worse. Boys are constantly portrayed as a
problem that girls are best to avoid. The idea that life is about getting a job is pushed constantly. I remember Michelle Obama telling girls to put books before boys. Look. I fully agree with that. Obviously, of course, get an education, but that has largely turned into all books, no boys. Marriage rates continue to decrease, and this glamorizing of divorce
is not good for anyone. My prediction is that all of these stories that we read over the last decade about how older mena lonely, have no friends and no social outlets will be told about women fairly soon. Women are more social in general and encouraged to have friends, but the whole idea that discourages them from being in relationships will end up hurting them. I often talk about
things you should discuss with your children. Talk to your kids about the importance of finding the right spouse, of getting married and having a family. Say the words as I like to say on this show. But this is something to also talk about with friends so they don't get influenced by bad actors. Divorce isn't glamorous, it isn't freeing saying staying bad marriages. But don't believe the lie being very much pushed right now, that divorce is the only road to happiness and that a woman can only
be free when she is alone. So many of you have checked out my new podcast, co hosted with my good friend Mary Catherine Ham. It's called Normally and it's a political show. Unlike this podcast, new episodes are posted Tuesdays and Thursdays, and just like this show, you can hear it anywhere you get your podcasts. Please subscribe, Tell your friends, tell everyone, tell your enemies. Why not. I appreciate you all so much. Coming up next and interview with Dre de Matteo. Join us after the break.
Welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio. My guest today is Drey de Mateo. Drey is an Emmy Award winning actress from the Sopranos and co founder of the parrolne Ultra Free Hi. Dra, so nice to have you on.
Hi, It's an honor to be here. I figure I'm.
I'm a big fan of your work. I think I cried when Adriana was killed on The Sopranos, and I was like, don't get in the car, don't get in the car. But I've always thought you were just fantastic. And I've followed a lot of your recent interviews and you've talked about being an outcast in Hollywood because of your support for Donald Trump. Why do it?
I mean, well, first off, I you know, it was more benign than that.
Before it was Kennedy.
I've been supporting Kennedy the whole time through the pistle pain. Now that Kennedy's joined forces with Trump, I am not a.
What do they call them? The Trump derangement syndrome, folks? Was no TDS.
Well, okay, I had that when I voted for Biden, and I had never voted in my life because I was always anti government, always believed it was a selection.
I was anti Bush all of these things.
And until I realized that this administration just seems like a continuation of that, the Bush administration.
But I you know, I.
Remember my daughter saying, you know, pick the lesser of two evils, mommy, And at that time, I wasn't really I was asleep.
I wasn't paying much attention to what was going on.
I think that when there are Democrats in office, liberals do tend to go to sleep.
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, And I felt like, you know, when Trump was in office, all I kept saying was I think this is amazing.
Everyone's awake. But I yes, and now cast in Hollywood. I was never part of Hollywood to be pushed out of there. It never would have even I don't care.
I don't think I'd go back right now to act or try to be a part of that society. I think it's a I think everything is so rigged right now. I'm not happy with the media period in general. I feel like there's a war on the truth on from every angle and creative I just, yeah, my ostracized from Hollywood, my set aside because of Trump. I mean, am I going to get behind Trump right now?
Fourth? Right?
I just you know, I just don't get like so I'm a conservative. You know, before we got on, you said, you know, like, okay, you're token liberal for the day, which is funny because you are a liberal, right, I mean self proclaimed liberal, and yet you're supporting Donald Trump. You could have an easier time, you know, you could not say anything you can I mean, you could obviously join the Kamala train, but even if you don't want to do that, you could easily just have the easier
time in your career and stay quiet. So I'm always curious about the people who don't have to speak up and actually speak up at like risk to themselves. Why why what motivates you?
Well?
I had no choice. I fell into it. I wasn't looking for a platform of any kind. I've been quiet actor my whole life, totally anonymous. No one would know anything from me. My Instagram was never fully active. So when I lost everything through the vaccine mandates, that was when things.
Started to get really heated. I was losing my home. I was almost a foreclosure to talk why I was in foreclosure.
And I had to do things that I would never a million years imagine I would do to survive, take care of my kids and everything.
It was kind of just a spoof, like like a joke sort of we we. I'm going to say we because.
It was a family decision and only fans as a fan page, not if it only fans is a lot of different things, but for me, it was you know, it's like an Adriana to serve a fan page if anything. And I got a lot of I got a lot of heat, I got a lot of love.
I am between two worlds. It's funny.
It's like the conservatives don't want me because I did that, but they were They had open arms for me for that because I was People secretly knew I was moving towards being more of a conservative by the way.
You know, a lot of.
Us and a lot of us ultraliberals will say that, you know, conservative is.
The new pop rock. Oh yeah, for sure.
A lot of my I'm digressing and I always do, and I'm so sorry because I.
Don't worry about it. This is this is a flowing conversation, you know.
Yeah, it breaks my heart to see my liberal friends who don't understand yet, and the minute you mentioned because they I got them all behind Kennedy. Took a while, and I got a lot of people behind Kennedy. And now that he's moved over to Trump, I feel like, holy shit, what am I going to do? How am I going to convince people that.
That he's that he's okay right when they're so hung up on headlines and the fact that he's racist, that he's sexist, that he's you know, that he has a personality disorder.
I mean, it's so it feels like the biggest mountain I would climb right now. And I'm not trying to get people to vote for Trump or I was never trying to get them to vote for Kennedy. All I was doing once I was let out of the stable and I had no choice anymore. Like once I the only Fans thing came out and I explained why I did that, I was catapulted into a world of insanity and I stayed there. I didn't even feel like it was me doing the talking Half the time. I'm like,
what is happening here? But I just want people just to wake up more. The people that are on the brink of waking up, just go all the way. I know there are a lot of people.
That were going to lose through a lot of this, right, but.
I think people need to get back to the middle, to the center of reality, of just reality and recognize that. You know, I know Trump's a republic and I know that a lot of people that love him are conservatives. But I really believe in my heart that he's not playing politics right now.
I mean he has to, Yeah, he's his own thing.
Yeah, and he needs.
That Republican vote, and I understand that humanity is the bigger issue right now, and any way to get into the corruption, to start whacking all those weeds down, you.
Know, with Kennedy in there, because he gives a voice.
Trump says straight in the swamp, and then Kenny comes in there and explains what exactly that means. And I feel like the pairing of the two of them. We were all like hoping for this, you know, because you need Trump's muscle.
Do you get support from the Italian American world because they're pretty conservative? I mean, you know, I'm I was born in Russia. I grew up in Brooklyn. Italians were my people. They were very similar to US conservatives, and you know, kind of normal.
It's funny. I got all their support.
I mean, I know I'll have most of their support now that I would be behind Trump. Kennedy was a sort of a nebulous place. I think for some Italians.
I think there's so.
Much ego tied into the politics of of what team you choose. People are just so like Mega or Blue Blue, no matter who, there's all his ego in it, and Italians have major egos. So in that respect, yes, But then a lot of people who saw that I joined OnlyFans think that I'm you know, thought now they don't really know that it's just kind of for fun. But yeah, so that was tough. I, like I said, I'm a man without a country. There's no they don't have any
side to be on at this point. I don't really believe in any of these sides.
I believe in the best person for the job.
I don't think that two men are going to be able to stop this avalanche that.
But it's not so much the Democrats.
You know, they were doing it during the Bush administration, and they pushed it through Clinton and Obama and all this, and I just don't know if two men can stop even with Tulsa. You know it takes all of us to wake up.
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What's your largest cultural concern? Like, what do you worry about? What's our biggest cultural problem?
Without sounding like an asshole, I would say the idiot you see that's out there right now.
That's a terrible thing to say. I think where does all cultures start? Right?
It starts in the media, you know, they push it through their channels. I think my hat's right here that I'm always wearing.
The fund the media.
The hat says yes.
So I feel like a lot of these cultural issues and Kennedy says it great, while you have everybody infighting over the social issues, you're not paying attention to what's really going on. I was trying to explain this to one of my gay friends yesterday. I just think all of these rights that they're afraid of being taken away, like gay marriage or abortion or.
All of that stuff.
I think, imagine if we had a society where two parties decided we are not going to go we are not running an abortion, gay marriage, We're not going to run any social issues. We're only going to run on the heart of the matter of what's really going on in the world, the food, the war, on the true with the wars, just the wars alone.
You look at the two parties and the Liberals will war. They vote for war, and that's a switch. That's a huge switch.
And I wonder with all this sort of identity politics, which I don't think it's identity in terms of race and sex. I look at identity politics more like I have to vote blue no matter who. And it's my version of it. It's not I know that's not the way it is in the world. But I feel like if they could just get away from the teams and realize that it's all bullshit, it's really about this corruption that's inside, and these two men are actually trying to
dismantle it. But he's got to use the Republican Party to do it. And no offense to the Republicans either.
But I think they know it. I think they're hip to it.
What's the idea behind your ultra free brand? Like the freedom thing seems to be a thing for you, definitely right.
Yes, it is.
When I almost lost my home and my kids had to watch me figure everything out and watch the stress I had to go through with no help from anyone, the only person who would help me was a Russian woman.
She offered to help me.
I just want to tell you that I'll never forget it because she's she was my I wouldn't take anything from her because she had nothing, but she said, let me pay.
Your mortgage off, and I'll do it right now. And I wouldn't take it.
But but we were very aligned during the whole Ukraine Russia thing because you know, we understood what was going on, whereas you know, a lot of these kids.
When my kids come to me and say, Mommy, what's.
Happening in Ukraine Russia, and I'm like, I don't really know, and now I need to go in and educate myself completely from you know, back in two thousands back to twenty fourteen.
All this stuff, that's where Ultra Free was born.
It was continue it was losing everything over freedom of speech.
Oh for being afraid. I was afraid.
I was afraid people were going to come to my house and force vaccinate us. I mean, you hear this stuff happening in other places, and what their agenda is my kids going to go to school.
We had to move. We were leaving.
California over the mandates and the public school system.
And there's more stuff coming that you know that we know about.
I'm sure you know there's more stuff on the horizon that is going to trample on our freedom. It's no matter who gets in office, they're going to push this agenda as far as it can. So Ultra Free was born out of all of that. It was, you know, don't tread on me. It's a very I guess sort of libertarian, you know.
And where this is one of our shirts, what is this in it? I can't as Council.
For Nuclear Disarmament, the Saints and we you know, we have a bunch of different ones like that.
This hasn't come out yet, but our.
Dual Protection Collection and a lot of them are either religious ambula or guns, and it's more symbolic of anything. We're anti war, but you're not taking our guns while you're corrupting our government.
That's just never going to happen.
So we support all of these things that most liberals might not support these days.
Yeah, that's ultra free for you.
I like it.
All these hats. You know we're going to be selling these hats.
Yeah, do you fund the media? Had yet one? So you survived all of this, You made it to the other side. You're doing what seems to be really well. Now, do you feel like you've made it?
I'll never make it in terms of what's important to me, you.
Know, I want an Emmy that's cool, like I made it. I made it in that realm. I'm working on a book right now.
I think that that will be a cool place for me to make it in a small way again in terms of what that all means in society.
But I think that things are just changing so much.
I don't know if they'll ever be an a moment where I sit there and say my more immature self might have said that, Like when my name was the Crossford Puzzles, I was like, yeah.
I made it. Now if you put me in the New York Times, I want to run for my life. But no, no, and I don't care about making it.
I just care about I just care about taking care of people, you know, more than anything.
That's always been the thing that has filled.
Me the most to be able when I lost all my money, that was what was the hardest thing for me, was to know that I wouldn't be able to help anybody out. So that, for me is the most important thing. Is I know a lot of people are going to need help moving forward and what's about to go down in society, and I need to be prepared to be able to lend a hand when it happens.
That's really great. I really enjoyed that. Thank you so much for coming on and here with your best tip for my listeners on how they can improve their lives.
All the truth, pick up every rock in your path, don't look at headlines, and try to educate your friends gently ask questions. Ask them to ask questions or follow the truth. It's always follow the truth. And teach your children to follow the truth and to be free thinkers. All of a sudden, kids are damned if they if they have if they have an opinion, there a future.
Yeah, absolutely yeah. Good advice. She's Dre de Matteo. Check out her new brand called Ultra Free. Thank you so much for coming, Andre, Thank you for having.
Thanks so much for joining us on the Carol marco Wich Show. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.