She was dubbed ‘the wild child’ in the UK when she presented The Word in the early 90s – and left scarred by the experience. After fleeing across the Atlantic, she reinvented herself, as a feminist activist, photographer, talkshow host and now a podcaster
Amanda de Cadenet. If you are of a certain vintage, that name will probably bring back a Proustian rush of sensory memories: Impulse Vanilla Kisses body spray, the feel of a Primal Scream Screamadelica cassette in your hands, the taste of Hooch on your tongue – all the greatest hits of 1990s Britain. At only 18, De Cadenet was one of the hosts on the cult Channel 4 late-night show The Word, and images of her in all her messy teenage glory, with chunky blond hair falling around her shoulders and tights always ripped, were everywhere. The tabloids gleefully tutted at the careening nightlife antics of the “wild child”, as they invariably called her.
When she was 20, she ran off to the US with John Taylor of Duran Duran soon after she had their daughter, Atlanta. Despite the doomsayers’ predictions, she did not become another show-business casualty: she and Taylor broke up but remain friends, and she later married Nick Valensi from the Strokes and had twins. Her professional career was even more surprising as she became a portrait photographer for glossy magazines – and a good one.
