Bridget Jones Author Helen Fielding Reflects on the Character's Kindness — and Critics (Exclusive)

Before Renée Zellweger had to choose between Hugh Grant and Colin Firth on the big screen – and before millions of readers fell in love with the novel – Bridget Jones’s Diary was a newspaper column in London Independent. And author Helen Fielding was certain it would be canceled within weeks.

“I assumed no one would read it because it was too trivial,” Fielding tells PEOPLE exclusively.

Oh, how wrong she was. The character quickly struck a chord with readers with his messy love life, relatable flaws, and constant struggle to develop “inner balance.” Instead of being dropped, the column ran in The Independent several years, jumping on The Daily Telegraph in 1997, and spawned four novels and three movies—with a fourth set to be released next year—making Bridget Jones an avatar for charmingly imperfect single women everywhere.

This week, a new 25th edition of the first novel hits American shelves at Penguin Books, a testament to the character’s enduring popularity.

25th anniversary edition of ‘Bridget Jones’s Diaries’.

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Renée Zellweger smiling on the set Bridget Jones: Crazy for a Boy in London

“What happens most often is that people tell me about their own ‘Bridget Jones moment,'” says Fielding. “Sometimes I feel almost like the Pope and what they want me to say is ‘Bless you my child, you are Bridget Jones.’ ”

But long before she was canonized as the patron saint of singles – not to mention one of the great comics of her generation – Fielding was a journalist writing for the BBC and British newspapers with the intention of becoming a serious literary writer. Her first book, 1994 Cause Celebsays Fielding, “it had good reviews, but hardly anyone bought it.”

Fielding says she was “seriously broke” at the time, making ends meet by writing book reviews and “trying to be a serious journalist” while working on the sequel Cause Celeb. Then the editors The Independent he approached her to write a column about single life in London.

“I said ‘no’ because that would be, ironically, hopelessly embarrassing and revealing,” she says. “But I really needed the money and said I would make up a character. The result was that I wrote a comically exaggerated version of myself that was read by tens of millions of people — and everyone ended up thinking it was me.”

Helen Fielding.

Romy Curran

Writing the column anonymously in Bridget’s voice, Fielding says, “freed me to write with emotional honesty about what was really going on for me as a woman at the time. I think that honest peek behind the curtains is what made it resonate the way it did.” But, she adds, “writing the column was simply quick, instinctive and unconscious.” It is not intended as serious social commentary.”

“Essentially, the column had a sitcom format, but it was also journalistic, so I would weave Bridget’s story into the news,” recalls Fielding. One memorable example was the column in which, shortly after the tragic death of Princess Diana, Bridget sets up copy Vogue and a bar of chocolate among the flowers in front of Kensington Palace.

Of course, a sitcom heroine needs love, and Fielding gave Bridget two: the dreamy but uptight Mark Darcy and the dreamy but toxic Daniel Cleaver.

“Most of the characters are based on an amalgam of real people,” says Fielding. “A lot of people claim to be Daniel Cleaver and one thing I’ve found is that if you’re going to use real people in the book, they probably won’t mind as long as you make them really attractive.”

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Colin Firth, Renee Zellweger and Hugh Grant in ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’ from 2004.

Jason Bell/Universal/Studio Canal/Miramax/Kobal/Shutterstock

This character, she explains, was based on the well-known archetype of the “witty, charming, sexy bastard” that single women regularly encounter. Mark Darcy, meanwhile, was her version of Firth’s Lord Darcy in the BBC’s 1995 film adaptation. Pride and Prejudice. “Being a bit of a magpie, I found myself following the plot Pride and Prejudice in columns. That came in very handy when my publisher suggested I turn the columns into a book,” says Fielding.

Although still beloved, Bridget has come under fire in recent years. In a 2018 essay, Fielding had the character reexamine the workplace sexual harassment she dealt with through a post-#MeToo lens. More recently, Bridget’s obsessive calorie counting – which Fielding says came straight from her university diaries – has come under fire.

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“Bridget has been subject to criticism from the moment it was published – especially from people who don’t understand irony,” notes Fielding. “My feeling is that if we as women can’t be ironic or laugh at our imperfections, then we haven’t gotten very far in equality, have we?”

“And let’s be honest, women’s body image concerns were a reality when I first wrote Bridget, and they’re even more of a reality now,” she adds. “For me, the ability to laugh at yourself is a sign of strength, not weakness. The source of the writing about Bridget was honest and from the heart. There was no great sociological intention behind it. The fact that it resonated with so many people spoke for itself – there was clearly some truth to it. I think it is better to look at the reasons why the voice resonates than to complain about its existence.”

Helen Fielding at the premiere of ‘Bridget Jones’s Baby’ in 2016.

Dave J Hogan/Dave J Hogan/Getty

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Almost three decades after her first Bridget Jones published column, Fielding finds her theme of “the gap between what people feel is expected of them and what they really are” even more resonant in the age of social media.

“There’s a new audience for Bridget among 15-25-year-olds and it doesn’t take neuroscience to link that to the effect of social media,” she says. “As a parent with a house full of teenage girls, I know how encouraging it is to share feelings about these things and laugh about problems together.”

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“Like Bridget, I think women enjoy genuine friendships with other women, where you share your vulnerabilities and draw strength from your community of friends who are radiators, not drains. Most women I know don’t want a friend who comes home and says ‘Oh look at me, I’m so perfect and successful’. You want a friend you can go to and say, ‘Oh my God, you won’t believe what just happened to me, get me a glass of wine!’ and leave feeling human, comforted and supported,” she continues.

“I also think Bridget has the decency. She is everywhere, but basically she is kind, moral, bright and not malicious. They are much more likely to blame themselves than others. And he builds a community around him,” says Fielding. “And as the world gets more and more scary, the little communities around everyone and the good values ​​of kindness, honesty and mutual support in those communities become more and more valuable and important. ”

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Source: HIS Education