I recently read an interview with ex-England Rugby Captain, Will Carling.
It’s a fascinating interview because in some ways, Will was David Beckham before even David Beckham.
Young.
Handsome.
Talented.
Successful.
A glamorous wife.
A media ‘celebrity’.
But in addition to this, he also faced incredibly scrutiny, destructive rumours and the wrath of the media for acts – as we learn in the interview – that were simply not true.
For example he was labelled as money obsessed as he would do public speaking … but what was not discussed was that it was his only source of income as he gave up his well-paid job at Mobil so he could concentrate on his [amateur] rugby fulltime.
But the most telling part of the interview – and the readers comments underneath it – is how he was sent away to boarding school at the age of 6.
SIX.
Separated from his parents to live in a dormitory, surrounded by other boys – many much older than him – all on his own.
The most heartbreaking part of the interview is this:
“Every night during those first weeks I would go into a ball at the bottom of the bed. You didn’t want anyone to hear you crying. It was unbelievably lonely.”
Otis is 5.
The thought of choosing to send him away … to see him maybe once a year … is beyond my comprehension.
It is, in my opinion, an act of utter cruelty.
The psychological damage to the child must be incredible … which may go some way to explaining why people like Boris Johnson and mob have this compulsion to be popular and can lie without hesitation.
Maybe it’s less they’re just out and out bad … and more the methods they learnt to survive from being sent to live in a boarding school at an age where no kid should be separated from their family, friends or home.
The fact there are places of ‘education’ that are OK with letting kids from the age of 6 not see their parents for months on end makes me so angry and reinforces my view that so much private education is designed to create complicity rather than individuality.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t know who Will Carling is.
Or if you don’t have kids.
Or if you hate rugby.
It’s a fascinating article about success, family, media, team mates and integrity and I am sure you will come out of it realising that the toughest men are hiding the most brutal pasts.
You can read it here.