Derren Brown regrets not asking Hillary Clinton how she felt being beaten by Donald Trump: ‘I was like a little kid!’

3 November 2023

Derren Brown is haunted by failing to ask Hillary Clinton how it felt having Donald Trump as president.

Derren Brown regrets not asking Hillary Clinton how it felt having Donald Trump as president

The TV trickster, 52, met the then-presidential hopeful, 76, and her husband, 77, at one of his Broadway shows in 2016, before she was beaten by Trump, 77, to the US leadership.

He told the Daily Mirror about being uncharacteristically stunned into speechlessness by the Clintons’ presence: “It was amazing. And some time afterwards they invited me out again. And that time I was like a little kid. They couldn't have been any sweeter and warmer but I didn't know what to say.

"It was horrible. I don't have massive social anxiety, or feel I'm dysfunctional with it. It's not that you don't want to connect, you do, but there's something making it difficult.

"It's so easy afterwards to look back and say, 'oh, I should have asked her, how does it feel having Trump as president? What's it like being you?' But you can't ask that!"

Derren also admitted he is incredibly introverted despite his job, adding: “A lot of people get into magic because they feel a bit under-confident or shy, because it is about impressing people.

"It's a great crutch. I'm sure that's why I got into hypnosis when I was younger."

Derren is currently co-directing the ‘Unbelievable’ show in London’s West End, and has labelled it “the magic show I’ve always wanted to see”.

He said: “It's one thing being on stage when things go wrong – I've done it for so long, you feel a certain amount of control over it. “It’s definitely worse, it turns out, being in the audience watching something fall apart, feeling responsible for it, and you can't help or do anything.”

Despite his high-flying career, he says he is now fully domesticated and takes orders from his new boyfriend.

He and his partner share a home and two dogs – beagle basset Doodle and Tibetan terrier Humbug – and Derren said: “I was told quite clearly, ‘It’s bin day,’

“It’s about your different love languages, isn’t it? Cleanliness and tidiness are big things for him, and I love a cluttered room.

“So although sometimes I find it annoying or silly, for him that's important.”

“So I take the bins out, and my love language is to be given space to paint and read and write, which wouldn't come intuitively to him.”