Chelsea Handlerlikes to keep it real.
The comedian and best-selling author, who made a brand out of unabashedly doling out her opinions on every subject from politics to sex, insists she didn’t realize she could be polarizing at times. “Everyone’s multifaceted, and I assumed everyone saw all those sides of me,” she tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue.
“I’m grateful for the self-awareness,” she says. “It really allowed me to just be a kinder, gentler person all around.”
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Demi Lovato (top); Brandon Marlo and Chelsea Handler (bottom).
Matt Baron/Shutterstock
“It was so important for me to tell people, ‘You’re not alone.’ If this is happening to me, it’s happening to millions of people,” she says. “I think a lot of people, especially now, are feeling very insecure about how their life is going. And this is a direct result of the last year’s events. I knowmysocial skills are rusty. I was out to a couple of dinners and sitting there going, ‘Oh, what am I going to say next?’ And that’s not me.”
Brandon Marlo and Chelsea Handler.COURTESY Chelsea Handler
Though she still embraces blunt honesty, Handler says finally dealing with the death of herbrother Chet, who died at age 22 in a hiking accident, has taught her “a lot more empathy, for sure, understanding why people behave the way they do,” she says.
“It’s certainly given me a lot of empathy for myself when I look back at times that I’m not so proud of. I’m not a person who lives in regret, but I have a lot of room for forgiveness now, whereas before, I would judge somebody a little more harshly if they did or said something that I didn’t like,” she continues.
Handler later apologized and deleted the video. “I didn’t realize how much damage he had caused, and how anti-Semitic he was,” she adds. “I just simply hadn’t done my research. Once it was brought to my attention I felt awful.”
Chelsea Handler.Chelsea Handler Instagram
Throughout any challenges Handler has faced over the years, “I just kept saying, ‘Keep going,'” she says.
Dear Chelseais now streaming on iHeartRadio.
source: people.com
