Her Side of the Stories

#trauma #healing #grief

Attacked at 12… Then Her Daughter Faced the Same | A Story of Trauma, Survival & Foregiveness | Her Side of the Stories

She was just 12 years old when something happened that changed everything.

In this episode of Her Side of the Stories, Anna Janssen shares a life shaped by trauma, loss, and resilience — from surviving a violent attack as a child, to losing the man she loved in a sudden accident, to facing the unimaginable again when her own daughter went through something similar.

This is not just a story about what happened.

It’s about what stays.

What changes you.

And what it takes to keep going anyway.

Anna speaks openly about trauma in the body, grief, forgiveness, relationships, and the long journey back to strength.

In this episode:

▪ What happens in the mind and body during trauma 

▪ The long-term impact of early trauma on relationships  

▪ Losing a partner suddenly and the shock that follows 

▪ How grief evolves over time  

▪ What it means to forgive — and why it’s not what you think  

▪ Facing trauma again through her daughter  

▪ How to support a child through something unimaginable 

▪ Turning pain into strength and purpose  

This is Her Side of the Stories.

New episode every Tuesday, 3PM CET.

00:00 Introduction  

01:00 A happy childhood before everything changed 

04:40 “At 12… something happened”  

05:30 The moment that changed her life  

09:00 Telling her mother  

12:00 How trauma affected her relationships  

14:00 The things that never leave you  

17:00 Learning about forgiveness  

18:30 Seeing him again years later  

21:00 The guilt and confusion after trauma  

24:00 Reclaiming control  

28:30 Leaving home and searching for freedom  

30:30 Falling in love in the United States  

31:00 The phone call that changed everything  

34:00 “I just ran” — the moment of loss  

36:00 Living with grief  

38:00 Love, fear, and avoiding pain  

40:30 Losing another partner  

41:00 Anger after loss  

44:30 Starting again with children  

45:00 When history repeated itself  

47:00 Finding her daughter after the attack  

49:30 How she responded in that moment  

51:00 Supporting her children through trauma  

53:00 “You’re the only one there”  

55:00 The long-term impact on her daughter  

57:00 Healing differently  

58:30 Turning pain into purpose  

01:00:00 Understanding forgiveness  

01:01:30 Why forgiveness is for yourself  

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Follow Her Side of the Stories

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Website: www.hersideofthestories.com

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#trauma #healing #grief #childhoodtrauma #traumarecovery #mentalhealth #emotionalhealing #healingjourney #resilience #womensstories #lifetrauma #overcomingtrauma #personaldevelopment #realstories #hersideofthestories #traumastory #griefjourney #innerhealing #survivorstories #selfhealing

Millions know Anouk Matton as MATTN, the Belgian DJ who has performed on some of the world’s biggest stages and built an international career in electronic music. But behind the energy, music, travel, and public image is a quieter side of her life that most people have never seen.

In this intimate conversation with Asal Zara, Anouk reflects on the experience in her early teens that changed the way she understood safety and control, the habits and thought patterns that followed, and what it has been like carrying those private struggles while building a very public career.

She also speaks about performing under pressure, the panic attack that changed the way she experienced flying, online criticism, being compared with her husband Dimitri Vegas, and the difference between the artist people see and the woman she is at home.

Topics covered:

• Growing Up in Belgium

• The Difference Between MATTN and Anouk

• The Experience That Changed Her at Thirteen

• Why Control Became So Important

• Living With Private Patterns for Years

• Performing While Managing What Nobody Could See

• The Moment Flying Suddenly Felt Different

• How Public Life Affects Her

• The Comments That Stay With Her

• Being Compared With Dimitri Vegas

• The Support She Finds in Her Relationship

• How Motherhood Changed Her Priorities

• Learning to Be More Present

• What She Would Tell Her Thirteen-Year-Old Self

• What She Wants Her Son to Remember

Anouk explains that motherhood shifted her center of gravity. London became her priority, and she found herself becoming more organized, more present, and more focused on small everyday moments rather than constantly living inside the pace of her career.

She also reflects on how difficult public criticism can be. Even after receiving many positive comments, she says the few negative ones are often the ones that stay with her at night. Her story is about what success looks like from the outside, and what a person may still be carrying underneath it.

Her Side of the Stories is a cinematic long-form interview podcast exploring extraordinary women’s lives from the inside. Each episode explores the experiences, relationships, identities, turning points, and choices that shaped who they became.

Her Side of the Stories explores the inner lives behind the lives people see.

Her Voice. Her Truth. Her Side.

The Woman Behind MATTN #womensstories #anoukmatton #womensexperiences

🔗 Stay Connected With Us.

Her Side of the Stories Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hersideofthestories

Asal Zara Instagram: http://instagram.com/imasalzara/ 

Asal Zara LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/asal-zara-aa845766 

Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/0NdDte4w6fgcuZZwZH1rpi?si=5u1ARRWURf2ynKa0n3Fe8g 

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/her-side-of-the-stories/id1890695561

Website: http://www.hersideofthestories.com

📩 For business inquiries: [email protected] 

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Kelly Weekers has lived several versions of what success can look like. She became Miss Netherlands, worked internationally as a model, studied psychology, built a career of her own, became a bestselling author, entrepreneur, and mother, and created a life that many people would describe as a dream. Please visit our website for more information: http://www.hersideofthestories.com

But one question followed her through much of that journey: Am I actually worthy? In this intimate conversation with Asal Zara, Kelly reflects on ambition, self-worth, modeling, relationships, friendship, motherhood, public judgment, and the difference between creating an impressive life and creating one that genuinely fits who you are.

Kelly shares why modeling quickly began to feel like someone else’s dream, the casting that finally made her walk away, and why returning to psychology felt like returning to herself. She also reflects on dating John Ewbank, being judged for their relationship, changing friendships, people-pleasing, boundaries, and the years she spent trying to prove that her achievements belonged to her.

Topics covered:

• Where Kelly’s Ambition Came From

• Living Someone Else’s Dream

• Becoming Miss Netherlands

• Why She Walked Away From Modeling

• Learning What Actually Made Her Happy

• Self-Worth and the Need to Achieve

• Meeting John Ewbank

• The Question Behind Her Ambition

• When She Stopped Needing to Prove Herself

• Motherhood and Changing Priorities

• Moving to Ibiza

• Building a Bigger Life on Her Own Terms

• What She Wants Her Daughters to Remember

Kelly says that for a long time her ambition was partly driven by not feeling good enough. Goals became a way to gain approval and prove people wrong. Today, she describes herself as still deeply ambitious, but says the motivation has changed: she works and creates because it genuinely fulfills her, rather than because she needs somebody else to validate it.

Kelly’s story asks a question many successful women eventually face: Are you building the life you want, or the life you learned to want?

Her Side of the Stories is a cinematic long-form interview podcast exploring extraordinary women’s lives from the inside. Each episode explores the experiences, relationships, identities, turning points, and choices that shaped who they became.

Her Side of the Stories explores the inner lives behind the lives people see.

Her Voice. Her Truth. Her Side.

Kelly Weekers’ Story: Success, Self-Worth & Choosing Your Own Path #womensstories #personalgrowth #selfworth

🔗 Stay Connected With Us.

Her Side of the Stories Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hersideofthestories

Asal Zara Instagram: http://instagram.com/imasalzara/ 

Asal Zara LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/asal-zara-aa845766 

Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/0NdDte4w6fgcuZZwZH1rpi?si=5u1ARRWURf2ynKa0n3Fe8g 

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/her-side-of-the-stories/id1890695561

Website: http://www.hersideofthestories.com

📩 For business inquiries: [email protected] 

=============================

🎬Suggested videos for you:

▶️https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqP69EOwXBI 

▶️https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82CEAXcLUwM 

▶️https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCWTm_8R43c 

▶️https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jFUpLzdtRA 

▶️https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqMwaDofLTo 

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For decades, actress La Georgea built a successful career and a life that appeared complete from the outside. But since childhood, she says she carried a deeply personal understanding of herself that she didn't feel able to express openly. Please visit our website for more information: http://www.hersideofthestories.com

Growing up between Belgium and Austria in a deeply conservative Catholic family, Georgea learned early how to adapt to the expectations around her. Over time, she built a public identity, an acting career, relationships, and even different versions of herself that allowed her to keep moving forward while an important part of who she was remained private.

In this intimate conversation with Asal Zara, Georgea reflects on identity, shame, love, marriage, belonging, career, and what happened when she finally told her longtime husband the truth she had carried for decades.

Topics covered:

• Growing Up Between Belgium and Austria

• Knowing Herself From an Early Age

• Family, Faith and Expectations

• Learning to Hide Parts of Herself

• Building a Successful Acting Career

• The Personas That Helped Her Express Herself

• Shame and the Pressure to Fit In

• Finding Language for Who She Was

• Telling the People Closest to Her

• The Conversation With Her Husband

• The Story Behind elle/elle

• What Freedom Feels Like Now

Georgea describes the morning after telling her husband as one of the lightest moments she had ever experienced. She remembers waking up feeling as though an enormous weight had finally lifted, even though the difficult work of understanding what came next was only beginning. Georgea’s story is ultimately about what it costs to spend decades performing a version of yourself, and what can happen when that performance finally ends.

Her Side of the Stories is a cinematic long-form interview podcast exploring extraordinary women’s lives from the inside. Each episode explores the experiences, relationships, identities, turning points, and choices that shaped who they became.

Her Side of the Stories explores the inner lives behind the lives people see.

Her Voice. Her Truth. Her Side.

La Georgea’s Story: Finding Freedom, Identity and Belonging #womensstories #identityandbelonging #femalevoices

🔗 Stay Connected With Us.

Her Side of the Stories Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hersideofthestories

Asal Zara Instagram: http://instagram.com/imasalzara/ 

Asal Zara LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/asal-zara-aa845766 

Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/0NdDte4w6fgcuZZwZH1rpi?si=5u1ARRWURf2ynKa0n3Fe8g 

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/her-side-of-the-stories/id1890695561

Website: http://www.hersideofthestories.com

📩 For business inquiries: [email protected] 

=============================

🎬Suggested videos for you:

▶️https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqP69EOwXBI 

▶️https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82CEAXcLUwM 

▶️https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCWTm_8R43c 

▶️https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jFUpLzdtRA 

▶️https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqMwaDofLTo 

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Regan Hillyer built an international career around manifestation, mindset, and personal transformation. From starting again with almost nothing to building multimillion-dollar businesses and teaching audiences worldwide, her public life became closely associated with confidence, possibility, and personal power. Please visit our website for more information: http://www.hersideofthestories.com

But behind that success, Regan says she gradually overrode some of the very instincts she encouraged others to trust. In this intimate conversation with Asal Zara, Regan reflects on growing up in New Zealand, leaving home young, rebuilding her relationship with herself, losing her first business, starting again from a friend’s couch, and eventually creating the career that made her internationally known.

She also speaks about the long-term relationship that became intertwined with her business life, finances, and public identity. Looking back, Regan says she began to see how often she ignored her own discomfort, questioned her instincts, and allowed decisions that didn't feel right to continue.

Topics covered:

• Growing Up on a Sailboat in New Zealand

• Leaving Home at Seventeen

• Learning About Control and Self-Worth

• Starting Her First Business

• Losing Everything and Beginning Again

• Building a Million-Dollar Company

• Creating a Public Life Around Personal Growth

• The Relationship Behind the Public Image

• When Business and Personal Boundaries Became Blurred

• Separating Her Private Life From Her Public Identity

• Forgiving Herself for What She Did Not See Earlier

• Who Regan Is Without Everything She Has Built

One of Regan’s biggest realizations came after stepping outside the relationship and examining decisions she had previously accepted as normal. She says she could finally see places where her intuition had told her something was wrong, but she had allowed herself to be persuaded otherwise.

She also reflects on the difficulty of holding two truths at once: recognizing behavior she now considers unacceptable while resisting the urge either to blame herself for everything or to define herself only as a victim.

For Regan, the experience eventually became less about proving how conscious or successful she was and more about trusting herself again. She says she now feels more like herself than she has in years and has been learning to forgive the version of herself who made decisions with the understanding she had at the time.

Her Side of the Stories is a cinematic long-form interview podcast exploring extraordinary women’s lives from the inside. Each episode explores the experiences, relationships, identities, turning points, and choices that shaped who they became.

Her Side of the Stories explores the inner lives behind the lives people see.

Her Voice. Her Truth. Her Side.

Behind the Success Regan Hillyer Built #reganhillyer #womensstories #personalgrowth

🔗 Stay Connected With Us.

Her Side of the Stories Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hersideofthestories

Asal Zara Instagram: http://instagram.com/imasalzara/ 

Asal Zara LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/asal-zara-aa845766 

Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/0NdDte4w6fgcuZZwZH1rpi?si=5u1ARRWURf2ynKa0n3Fe8g 

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/her-side-of-the-stories/id1890695561

Website: http://www.hersideofthestories.com

📩 For business inquiries: [email protected] 

=============================

🎬Suggested videos for you:

▶️https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqP69EOwXBI 

▶️https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82CEAXcLUwM 

▶️https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCWTm_8R43c 

▶️https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jFUpLzdtRA 

▶️https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqMwaDofLTo 

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Millions knew Jessica-Jane Stafford from television, particularly her years on BBC’s The Real Hustle. But behind the confident public image was a woman who says she spent much of her life adapting herself to the people around her. Please visit our website for more information: http://www.hersideofthestories.com

In this intimate conversation with Asal Zara, Jessica reflects on growing up painfully shy, dreaming of becoming someone else, entering modeling and television young, and gradually building a public identity before she fully understood her private one.

She also speaks about losing the hearing in her right ear at eighteen and how that changed the way she experienced social situations, work, confidence, and connection. She reflects on the pressure of television, the difficult period she experienced during The Real Hustle, motherhood, and why understanding herself differently has also changed the way she supports her children.

Topics covered:

• Growing Up Shy and Feeling Different

• Dreaming of Becoming Someone Else

• Entering Modeling and Television Young

• Learning to Adapt to Other People

• The Difference Between Confidence and Performing Confidence

• Losing Her Hearing at Eighteen

• How Hearing Loss Changed Her Social World

• Building a Career While Feeling Different Inside

• Life Behind The Real Hustle

Jessica says that when people used to tell her to “just be yourself,” she genuinely did not understand what they meant. She now describes authenticity much more simply: knowing what you enjoy, what matters to you, and not changing those things merely because someone else has different tastes or expectations.

Her story asks a powerful question: if you become very good at being what other people need, how do you eventually recognize yourself underneath all those versions?

Her Side of the Stories is a cinematic long-form interview podcast exploring extraordinary women’s lives from the inside. Each episode explores the experiences, relationships, identities, turning points, and choices that shaped who they became.

Her Side of the Stories explores the inner lives behind the lives people see.

Her Voice. Her Truth. Her Side.

The Woman Behind The Real Hustle #jessicajanestafford #womensstories #identityandbelonging

🔗 Stay Connected With Us.

Her Side of the Stories Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hersideofthestories

Asal Zara Instagram: http://instagram.com/imasalzara/ 

Asal Zara LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/asal-zara-aa845766 

Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/0NdDte4w6fgcuZZwZH1rpi?si=5u1ARRWURf2ynKa0n3Fe8g 

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/her-side-of-the-stories/id1890695561

Website: http://www.hersideofthestories.com

📩 For business inquiries: [email protected] 

=============================

🎬Suggested videos for you:

▶️https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqP69EOwXBI 

▶️https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82CEAXcLUwM 

▶️https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCWTm_8R43c 

▶️https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jFUpLzdtRA 

▶️https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqMwaDofLTo 

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