JULIE BURCHILL: Why I spread rumours about Kate - and I'm so ashamed of it
I 非難する Oscar Wilde; reading him at a formative age, his line ‘There is only one thing in the world worse than 存在 talked about, and that is?not 存在 talked about’ stuck in my 長，率いる.
So a part of me really thought I was doing my classmates a favour when, as a precocious pubescent, I spread stories about them to others with the invariable 予備交渉 ‘約束 you won’t tell, but…’
For one lovely springtime, I was the muck-spreading 同等（の） of those plate-spinners you saw in variety shows. Then I caught laryngitis (probably from all that 毒（薬） I was peddling) and was off school for a month.
When I went 支援する, I learnt all my gossiping had been 設立する out, and no one in my class would speak to me. Far from 存在 bothered or repentant, I 設立する it gave me even more time to read unsuitable 調書をとる／予約するs. Besides, I’ve always adored my own company.
The Princess of むちの跡s talking about her 癌 diagnosis last week
Still, I should have learned my lesson, but going straight from school into journalism wasn’t really 役立つ to that. I was a shy girl when I first entered the louche world of newspapers; when gossiping, I could 提起する／ポーズをとる as the wicked woman of the world I passionately 手配中の，お尋ね者 to be.
But I’ve always felt 承認する behaving this way because, 存在 極端に 厚い-skinned myself (insensitive, even), I have stayed true to the if-you-give-it-out-you’d-better-take-it school of thought. I’ve always despised those two-直面するd types who love a bit of 支援する-biting until they’re the 支配する, when th ey suddenly turn all #BeKind.
I’m genuinely not fussed what people say about me. I didn’t even 告訴する when a newspaper （刑事）被告 me of 存在 in love with Osama 貯蔵所 Laden. Indeed, when I had a little too much time on my 手渡すs at the turn of the century, I would occasionally 阻止する の上に online message boards and start a rumour about myself.
But after seeing the Princess of むちの跡s talking about her 癌 diagnosis last week, I felt an emotion that is 一般に 外国人 to me: shame.
Like many of us, I heard rumours from a social マスコミ 知識 about William and Kate that cast neither of them in a good light, and then I repeated them, twice. It wasn’t a lot, and it wasn’t the worst, and I didn’t go berserk with the craziest 肉親，親類d of 共謀 theories.
Yet while I would have felt no such 犯罪 about spreading 類似の rumours about the studs and starlets of showbiz, who have 追求するd fame so shamelessly, the princess is different. This wasn’t some reality TV 演劇 存在 played out for attention; this is someone’s life.
I was left asking myself, if I was 用意が出来ている to 追加する to the 悲しみ of a frail woman of just 42 準備するing her three young children for an uncertain 未来, whose am I?not?用意が出来ている to 追加する to?
It’s an uncomfortable position to find oneself in, even for me. And if I am happy to spread rumours in this way, can I really （人命などを）奪う，主張する to be a Christian?
So, after a lifetime of trash-talking, it has made me feel 決定するd to stop 説 things that are neither personal opinion or fact ? in short, gossiping.
You may be left wondering if such a 公約する is really a sacrifice, but for someone who has so long savoured gossip, it certainly is a sea-change. Even if I can’t （人命などを）奪う，主張する my love of tittle-tattle has always served me 井戸／弁護士席.
If I think 支援する to the gossip I’ve passed on over the years, 非，不，無 of it 関心ing famous people that I’ve heard ‘from a friend of a friend’ has ever turned out to be true.?
Julie Burchill 令状s that she kidded herself she was somehow 存在 noble by gossiping
(Apart from the one about the girl who woke up next to an extraordinarily ugly but very successful 90s pop 星／主役にする after an ill-advised one night stand. Rather than wake him up ? 恐れるing that a repeat 業績／成果 might be called for? she let herself out of his mansion only to find a 広範囲にわたる 運動 in 前線 of her, at the end of which were a pair of high and locked gates.?She stood there desolate until after ten minutes a police car passed by, 逆転するd and stopped; a policewoman jumped out, laughing, and punched in the 開始 code. 明らかに it happened so often the pop 星／主役にする had given his 地元の police 軍隊 the numbers himself.)
Even when I kidded myself I was somehow 存在 noble by gossiping, I was often doing more 害（を与える） than good. ‘No, I will?not?s hut her out of my social circle,’ I scolded a friend who 手配中の，お尋ね者 us to 永久的に swerve another pal of ours.?
‘She is an 護衛する and deserves our compassion.’ The first friend had no idea the second one was a sex 労働者 until then.
So why do I do it? The political 選挙事務長 Ben Wallace once said of a 確かな 閣僚 member that he had ‘an emotional need to gossip, 特に when drink is taken’.?
Which at least gives him some sort of excuse; my own 合理的な／理性的な is far いっそう少なく worthy of pity ? I like to amuse.
Because I tell my husband everything (and have done for the nearly 30 years I’ve known him) my friendships tend to be about me entertaining people rather than confiding in them; it’s the same 推論する／理由 I would far rather take people out to restaurants than ever go to their homes.?
I decided somewhere during my poor-but-honest childhood that should I ever get the chance, I’d make life into a party, and somehow ? shamefully ? idly toying with the actual stuff of people’s lives has become as careless as ordering another 一連の会議、交渉／完成する of drinks.
I can’t pretend I’ll be sitting around crying into my Long Island Iced Tea thinking about all the people I’ve wronged with my gossiping ways these past １０年間s. For all I know, they were gossiping about me, too.
But I am trying to turn over a new leaf. My friend James has tried to 始める gossip with me twice recently and both times I’ve come 支援する with ‘I can’t かもしれない comment’. He finds this 高度に amusing, but perhaps I’ll have the last laugh.
Because I’d like to be remembered as something more than an ever-streaming 下水管 of salacious gossip ? even if it has been a lot of fun.
