Pip Edwards once chose relationships for "external validation". But not anymore.

Pip Edwards is in a period of looking inwards. 

It’s a novel approach for the entrepreneur. As the co-founder of hugely popular activewear label P.E. Nation and a single mother to a 15-year-old son, Edwards operates at “turbo” pace. Her days are spent dashing between meetings, making decisions about design and trade and marketing.

But speaking to Mamamia’s No Filter podcast, Edwards said she is trying to focus more on making decisions for herself, for her own benefit. And that includes relationships.

Watch: How to be a woman in 2023. Post continues after video.

Contemplating her romantic history, the Sydney woman conceded that, in the past, she’s entered relationships for the wrong reasons.

“I think it's maybe an indication of not really valuing myself… I've made a series of decisions based on external validation,” she said.

“[Based on] what society puts forward or my parents put forward, what’s great for my child — what's great for everything but me.”

The legacies of Edwards’ last high-profile relationship live with her.

She dated former Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke from 2020 to 2021, yet two years on, paparazzi still swarm after her, waiting outside her home and workplace, even trailing her to the beach. And the tabloids still define her in relation to Clarke: “Pip Edwards' revenge body,” one January headline read. 

Just days prior to that article, Edwards was dragged back into the headlines courtesy of a now-infamous public altercation between Clarke and his partner Jade Yarbrough in the Queensland resort town of Noosa. A bystander captured and sold footage of Yarborough shouting at Clarke, making accusations that he’d been cheating on her with Edwards.

The opening line of Edwards’ press statement is now embedded in the Aussie tabloid canon: “This is not my circus,” she wrote, bluntly.

The statement continued, “Yet again, Michael in his true nature has not taken responsibility for his actions and I was blatantly lied to.”

That acerbic response is perhaps a reflection of Edwards’ new inward focus, her reclamation of her self-worth.

She’s working on it through therapy. After more than a decade of trying various forms, she’s having success with neuro-linguistic programming — a series of techniques that aims to change unhelpful thoughts, feelings, behaviours, and communication patterns. It’s not a recognised form of psychotherapy, but is practised widely in the life-coaching arena and can be used as a supplement to more conventional therapies.

Listen to No Filter, In this conversation, she opens up about her business P.E Nation, life as a single mum and reality of co-parenting, and why she hasn't felt 'safe' in any of her relationships so far. 

For Edwards, that process involves not just harnessing her confidence, but learning how to be “soft and vulnerable”, too. Leaning into that side of herself requires her to feel entirely safe. Especially when it comes to relationships. 

“You have to feel safe in a romantic sense, too. And history would say, I'm not sure if I've ever felt safe,” she said.

That’s something she’s determined to change, and hopeful that she will.

“I’m really stepping into my skin, and I'm not scared,” she told Mamamia. “Anymore.”

Feature Image: Instagram

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