Page 181 - Vogue - India (January 2020)

therapy session) has earned her 108 million loyal Twitter and I did not want to get out of bed. In the past, I had been
followers (second only to Barack Obama), and helped her
transition from her Betty Boop-meets-Barbie image to a se-
rious musical force capable of capturing a stadium.
PITCH PERFECT
But the journey has had its share of ups and downs. “I’ve
gone to therapy, been through the Hoffman Process, done
plant medicine.... And I have a partner who is also all about
finding a balance—Orlando, who is on a spiritual journey of
his own. He’s an anchor who holds me down, and he’s very
real. He’s not the number one fan of Katy Perry, but he’s the
number one fan of Katheryn Hudson.”
Over a few days, I notice that this wide-eyed, gum-chew-
ing performer winks a lot—during interviews, the eye ges-
ture affirms that she and you (the interviewer), are in on the
joke. A tabloid report once mentioned Bloom recalling this
particular eye flutter that brought the two together in 2016
at the Golden Globes after-party.
The couple share a lot in com-
mon. Entertainers living in the pub- “[Orlando’s]
lic eye, they’ve both experienced
broken marriages, and this evolu- not the number
tion has only strengthened their
bond. “Love is different from dat-
ing. You date in your twenties. Love one fan of Katy
is partnership, friendship, truth
and being an absolute mirror to Perry, but he's
someone,” she says, fidgeting with
her flower-shaped engagement the number one
ring. “Orlando is like a sage. When
we first met, he said we would pull fan of Katheryn
the poison out of each other, and we
really do. It’s exhausting, but we re- Hudson”
ally hold each other accountable.
I’ve never had a partner who was
willing to go on an emotional and
spiritualjourneylikeOrlando.It’schallenging,becauseyou’re
facing all the things you don’t like about yourself. It’s like a
never-ending cleanse.”
As artistes, they travel the globe, often separately. While
Perry is in Mumbai, Bloom is in Prague, shooting season two
of Carnival Row. Their schedules continually push them to-
wards chaos, but they find a way out. “It’s always going to be
a unique situation, but we knew that going into it,” she says.
“FaceTime, thank god, has been invented. It’s a relationship-
saver.” And while Perry swears by TM, Bloom is a Buddhist
who starts his day at 6am, chanting Nam myoho renge kyo.
“I think it’s an amazing way to begin your day by thinking
about something other than yourself,” she says. She too is
incorporating small changes to her routine: “I start my day
with gratitude. Every morning, the first thing I do is not look
for my phone. Sometimes I can avoid it for a minute, some-
times five, but I do try to consciously think about gratitude.”
A BEAUTIFUL MIND
She’s in a good place now, so there’s reason to be thankful.
But 2017-18 was her toughest time. “I became depressed
able to overcome it, but this time something happened that
made me fall down too many flights of stairs. I had to really
go on a mental health journey,” she shares.
Living in the hyper-scrutinised world of celebrities pre-
sents its own challenges and vulnerabilities, but Perry has
emerged a vocal advocate of mental health. “We talk about
all our different organs but never talk about out brain,
which keeps us functioning the most,” she notes.
As fearless and unapologetically outspoken as Perry has
been to speak her mind, the media has been less than forgiv-
ing. “For the press, every few months I turn into ‘Perry, the
Piñata’. But thankfully, I don’t get my validation from them
anymore,” she says.
She’s often misunderstood; her sartorial quirk has
courted controversies like cultural appropriation, while
her appearance on Sesame Street was labelled ‘too sexy’
for the show. Not everyone gets her, but she continues to
use the voice under her peroxide
mane (the real hair colour is a
“non-eventful squirrel brown”,
she shares) to represent many
things to many people—a role
model for children, a feminist icon
for women and a crusader for the
LGBTQI+ community.
Sometimes, she uses her platform
for politicking and to steer change.
During the 2016 US presidential
campaign, Perry established her po-
sition as Hillary Clinton’s biggest
cheerleader and wrote ‘Chained to
the rhythm’ as a wake-up call for fel-
low Americans to fight the good
fight. At the 2017 Grammys, when
she performed the song, she wore a
suffragette white pantsuit with the
word ‘Persist’ emblazoned on an armband. “If you have a
big spotlight and you’re sharing it for good, it’s going to be
better for everyone,” says the pop star with a purpose, who,
as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, has undertaken trips
to impoverished parts of Vietnam and Madagascar to advo-
cate for children’s education and clean water resources. “At
35, I’ve checked many boxes off my list and I’m now being
challenged to dream new dreams,” she says. “I want to be
involved in environmental companies, I want to go back to
school [psychology and philosophy will be her subjects of
choice] and I want to influence good people to run for office.”
She won’t share details on her wedding yet, but she wants
a big family, and dreams of retiring in a commune with her
family and friends. She may not have found the cure to eve-
rything in life, but she finally understands the meaning of
her tattoo—to go with the flow. “I’ve been in the public eye
for 12 years and I’ve made many mistakes. I’m human, and
I still want to try,” she says. “I don’t want to be defeated or
become a recluse. I want to live life. And doing that means
you might occasionally trip, but it’s not about how you fall—
it’s about how you get up.” n
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