Lesley Stahl Gushes Being A Grandmother Has Given Her ‘Purpose’ — ‘It Changed Me On Every Level!’ (Exclusive)
For 60 Minutes anchor Lesley Stahl, the day her daughter, Taylor, gave birth to daughter Jordan in 2011 (and then two years later to her sister Chloe) was “gigantic.” “It changed me on every level,” Lesley, 76, recently shared with Closer Weekly at The International Women’s Media Foundation Courage in Journalism Awards in NYC, where she was honored with a lifetime achievement award.
“I knew purpose, I knew the right path to the future, and I even wrote a book about it [2017’s Becoming Grandma]. It blows your mind. It is a total out-of-body experience kind of thing. I have never felt anything like this, and it was unlike anything I ever imagined that was in me,” she said.
In Lesley’s book, she also gives other fellow grandparents a few tips and tricks to get more involved in their grandchildren’s lives. “If you’re already babysitting and sending money, do more,” she wrote. “If you live in another state, build into your retirement plan a way to be with those children more often. And if the path to your own grandchildren is blocked for whatever reason, then get involved helping other young children.”
The author’s advice didn’t fall on death ears. Her book was quickly added to The New York Times Bestseller List and Lesley said that being a grandma feels “twice as great” as she makes it out to be. “It’s an extraordinary new chapter that opens up suddenly,” Lesley said in a previous interview on PBS News Hour. “It just takes you over in such an elated way that you just can’t believe this new kind of emotion that you have never felt before.”
She continued, “No matter how many people tell you it’s the best thing that could ever happen to you, you don’t understand what they mean until it happens to you, because it’s so full, body-full.”
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