DDecision number one: obviously lose twenty kilos. Number two: find a sweet, cute guy to date and avoid feeling romantically morbid attraction to any of the following: alcoholics, workaholics, phobics of serious relationships, voyeurs, megalomaniacs, impotent sentimentalists. Being depressed because I don’t have a boyfriend, it’s better to cultivate inner calm and self-esteem…”. With this list of good resolutions for the new year he began Bridget Jones’s Diary, the book with the most famous literary heroine of the nineties created by the British writer Helen Fielding.
Bridget Jones’s Diary it sold 20 million copies
At the time, the novel became the manifesto of a generation of single thirty-year-olds, insecure and convinced that they were always one step behind life. Published in 1996, the book turns thirty this year and has entered the rankings of BBC of the 100 books to read once in a lifetime. Born in 1995 as an anonymous column on‘Independent, it has sold over 20 million copies worldwide and has been translated into 40 languages.
From the novel three successful films were born with Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth and Hugh Grant, which have grossed hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office. And, demonstrating how much Bridget has become a pop icon, in 2025 there was even one dedicated to her statue in Leicester Square, in the heart of London, with Zellweger’s face.
Helen Fielding: «Today Bridget would be a happy single»
A scene from the film “Bridget Jones’s Diary” based on the novel by Helen Fielding
Helen Fielding, 68 years old, English writer, screenwriter and journalist, she answers us from the British capital where she returned to live after a long American period in Los Angeles. Between the late 1990s and 2000, she was linked to the producer of the Simpsons series, Kevin Curran (who died in 2016), with whom she had two children, Dashiell and Romy.
Helen, who would Bridget Jones be today if she were thirty?
With #MeToo everything changed. Bridget could no longer have the same two-way exchange with Daniel Cleaver, her boss. At the time it was a kind of game between adults, now a boss who comments on a colleague’s “b-side” would be perceived as inappropriate at the very least. At the same time, Bridget reflected the mentality of those years: being a “spinster” was a social burden. Today I think she would instead be a happy single. And his obsession with weight and calories would also sound different, in an era much more sensitive to body shaming.
Helen Fielding: «Women are no longer looking “just” for their Mark Darcy»
Is there anything that hasn’t changed?
The biological question remains: motherhood continues to weigh more on women than on men. We can freeze all the eggs we want, but in your thirties the pressure is still there. And then there is the need for rituals and a small community. Bridget had vodka, cigarettes and long conversations with friends. Today people have matcha, collagen and protein. But the mechanism is the same: small rituals to feel safer. And I think that basically it’s not much different than in the nineties. The scarier the world becomes, the more important these small communities become. I live in a part of London that’s a bit like a village. I always talk to friends and neighbors: «Are you okay? Do you want to go out? Shall we go to the pub?”. Social relationships are fundamental.
Bridget Jones put the search for love before everything. Are women still looking for their Mark Darcy?
Obviously yes. Today’s girls, however, in general, seem less focused on marriage. They are much more interested in career, independence, their own autonomy. They don’t define themselves through a partner. And they experience global uncertainty with greater awareness. They think about the planet, about politics, about the future. They are much more connected to these issues. There was less collective anxiety at the time.
Helen Fielding: «Bridget Jones’s Diary was inspired by my life in London at the time»
The writer Helen Fielding
The truth: is your heroine autobiographical?
Yes, I was inspired by my life in those years. London was decidedly hedonistic, it was the time of Cool Britannia, Lady D and Charles and Camilla’s scandals: there was a lot of flirting, nothing was really “politically correct”. People worked in offices, they met, they had a lot of sex, there were a lot of parties. Numerous books were published. I was working as a journalist at the Independent and was looking for a way to pay the rent.
I had proposed to BBC a sitcom with that character, but the answer came too late. So I started an anonymous column for six weeks, secretly from my colleagues. I realized that Bridget worked when a friend, who had inspired the character of Jude (played in the film by Shirley Henderson, ed.), asked me if I had read those adventures. He didn’t know I was the author.
Why did so many women identify with her?
Because she was fun, goofy, funny, authentic. After all, we are all a bit like this behind the doors of our homes, with our pajamas and our fragilities. I was free to write whatever I wanted. And I wasn’t trying to please anyone or seem plausible. I just wanted to tell, with irony, the metropolitan adventures of a thirty-two year old in London at the time.
Helen Fielding: «Bridget is a feminist»
Would you define her as a feminist?
In some ways yes. At first I was attacked by several women. Camille Paglia was one of my fiercest critics (she is the well-known American feminist who said: «I want to save feminism from the feminists» famous for the book Sexual Personae: Art and decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, ed.). But if a woman can’t write honestly, self-deprecatingly, and humorously about what happens to her, and other women say it’s a detriment to feminism, then we really aren’t equal. Why can men write about funny or ridiculous characters without anyone saying they are insulting men?
Even today they ask me to go on TV to defend Bridget Jones. But then I think: why? Just look at the public response. If the character hadn’t been emotionally authentic, no one would still be talking about it after thirty years. If someone wants to attack it, they can simply not read it. You can’t argue with millions of readers who love her or who recognize themselves in her.
Another great obsession of Bridget Jones was weight, a fixation that today, as she noted, would be read differently.
And yet in the nineties it was an obsession. Today that concern coexists, as we know, with the discussion on body positivity (acceptance of one’s body, ed.). In my books, I actually never said how much Bridget really weighed. It was not known whether it was a real problem or a neurosis in his head. I remember finding my university notebooks with absurd lists: a carrot 15 calories, a yogurt 100 calories, a chocolate bar thousands of calories.
Helen Fielding: «Success didn’t come straight away»
Were you inspired by those notebooks for the novel?
Absolutely, I read them every day. They were fun, after all. It all started from there.
Why was there all this focus on the body?
I think it came mostly from the media and magazines. The patterns of thinness were extreme, almost dangerous. Today I see people using apps to track everything: calories, alcohol, physical activity. Ultimately it’s not much different from Bridget in the nineties, but at least the body care is healthier. It wasn’t like this for my mother’s generation: she never thought about calories, she ate everything and stayed the same.
What impact has success had on your life?
It didn’t all happen overnight. The column gradually became more popular, then the book arrived, it had good reviews, but it didn’t sell much. The real boom came with the paperback edition. I realized that things had changed when I came home one evening and there was a paparazzo waiting for me on a motorcycle.
Helen Fielding: «The stereotypes about mature women are annoying»
Hugh Grant, Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth and director Beeban Kidron at the premiere in Amsterdam on 8 November 2004 of the film “Bridget Jones’s Diary”. The actor reaches his 50th birthday on 9 September 2010. ANSA/MARCEL HEMELRIJK
What did he think?
It annoyed me at first. Also because at the beginning my life had remained identical: same apartment, same broken-down car. I thought: can’t they leave me alone? Fame, though, is strange: you want attention and at the same time you don’t want it. I grew up in an industrial area of England reading Jackie Collins (the English writer known for the scandalous series The Ladies of Hollywood, ed.) and I imagined myself like her, lying in the sun, with a cocktail by the pool.
So, when I arrived in Los Angeles, for the premiere of Bridget Jones, I discovered that, for the cost of my house in London, I could buy a much larger one with a swimming pool. So I did. I started spending a lot of time there also because in Hollywood no one is really interested in writers. I wore big dark glasses and felt very charming. It was a magical time, I raised my children until, at a certain point, I felt the need to return to my roots, to my London. It always changes…
In the latest book, and film, Mad about the boy – A boy’s love – tells the attraction between a mother with children and a boy. A current topic.
It’s a theme I feel. Because I’m annoyed by the patriarchal stereotype of older women dating younger men and all those labels that they put on us. In films, older women are often represented as if they have no life: sitting at home, desperate because their children aren’t coming back, sad and miserable in squalid restaurants. Or they are represented as hysterical or aggressive. There are few representations of intelligent, lively and interesting 40-50 year olds. I didn’t think about Bridget Jones at first. I just wanted to tell a story starting from this concept. But the character has made its way.
Do you think there are still limitations in the way women are portrayed in films?
A recent example, the film Marty Supreme (with Timothée Chalamet and Gwyneth Paltrow, ed.): the younger protagonist seduces the mature woman. Let’s talk about it…
Helen Fielding: «Bridget was lucky with Renée Zellweger, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth»
Colin Firth, Rene Zellweger and Hugh Grant (Photo by Ferdaus Shamim/WireImage)
Speaking of the films inspired by your heroine, did you like the interpretation of Renée Zellweger, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth?Mad About the Boy received a nomination at the recent Bafta. The film was nominated for Best British Film 2026. As an author, you always have a protective relationship with your “creatures”, it’s a bit like raising a child. The subject wasn’t easy to construct, there were no superheroes, but only the point of view of my character, with his sense of humor and approach to life. The actors were the best possible choice. Bridget, in fact, is Renée Zellweger, the statue in London portrays her, the actress, not a fictional woman.
Will he write a new book about Bridget Jones, perhaps dealing with grandchildren, menopause and Tinder for sixty-year-olds?
I do not believe. The integrity of a character is important. If it had become a series I don’t think it would have maintained the same freshness. I only write a story if I have something to say, if I can talk about real feelings. The thing is, when you have a character like Bridget Jones in your hands, you know you’ll never repeat that success. Writing, though, is something I need. It’s like going out without your bag: you feel like you’re missing something. But who knows, in the future. Never say never.
