April 09, 2025

Midlife Isn’t a Crisis, It’s a Comeback: Maddie Corman on Being Accidentally Brave

1 hour 21 minutes

Description:

Maddie Corman is a seasoned American actress and playwright that you’ve seen in classic films including Some Kind of Wonderful, Maid in Manhattan, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, and our favorite television shows like Law and Order, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

Most recently, she has put her creative hand to writing and performing in a very raw and vulnerable autobiographical one-woman play called Accidentally Brave, that delves into Maddie's personal journey following the arrest of her husband on child pornography charges in 2015. Today, Maddie shares her story of navigating the aftermath, focusing on themes of resilience, healing, and redefining normalcy when life takes an unforeseen turn.

In this tender and transparent conversation, we discuss:

How Maddie’s life turned upside down after a public personal crisis—and how she found her way back

What led to her decision to write a raw, hilarious, deeply moving one-woman show called Accidentally Brave (now a movie on MAX!)

What she imagined midlife would look like when she was younger versus what it looks like from where she sits today

What it’s like to walk (or sometimes crawl) through shame and loss—and come out with more freedom, more truth, more YOU

Also, how motherhood shifts our perspective in crisis

What practices or people help us stay grounded in the hard moments – Maddie shares some really great resources!

Why midlife is actually the best time to tell your story and start again

Thought-provoking Quotes:

“After a really big trauma that I thought was going to destroy my children, it turns out, they are thriving, and funny, and sensitive, and smart, and caring, and annoying, and they love me, and I drive them crazy, I’m sure. I share that because I feel like that was what saved my life was somebody who had been through something similar saying my kids are going to be okay.” – Maddie Corman

“When you lose your mother, people bring a meatloaf over. But when your husband's arrested and you say ‘I think he's a sex addict and a porn addict,’ there's no meal train that's coming for that.” – Maddie Corman

“I had lived 47 years when this happened and I had never met another person who had gone through anything like this. P.S. It turns out I had. They just didn't share about it.” – Maddie Corman

“You inch your way back to the sunshine and it's so slow. And at the beginning you just think, everything's ruined; I'll just never be happy again so let me cobble together some sad life that just gets me to the finish line. But the truth is, it's stunning how much we can recover.” – Jen Hatmaker

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Some Kind of Wonderful film (1987) - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094006/

John Hughes - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000455/?ref_=fn_all_nme_1

Brené Brown - https://brenebrown.com/

Glennon Doyle - https://momastery.com/

Elizabeth Gilbert - https://www.elizabethgilbert.com/

Accidentally Brave Play - https://www.maddiecorman.com/accidentally-brave

Accidentally Brave on MAX - https://play.max.com/movie/b19ce99f-93c8-4150-ba0d-139e12048efe

Partner Betray Counseling - https://www.maddiecorman.com/partner-betrayal-counseling

Find a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist (CSAT) Therapist - https://iitap.com/page/TherapistDirectory

Find a 12-Step Program - https://www.aa.org/find-aa

SANON International - https://sanon.org/

AL-ANON Family Groups - https://al-anon.org/

Guest’s Links:

Website - https://www.maddiecorman.com/

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/msmaddiecorman/

Twitter - https://x.com/maddiecorman

Connect with Jen!

Jen’s Website - https://jenhatmaker.com/

Jen’s Instagram - https://instagram.com/jenhatmaker

Jen’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/jenHatmaker/

Jen’s Facebook - https://facebook.com/jenhatmaker

Jen’s YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/JenHatmaker

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By Jen Hatmaker

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