In an interview with Natalia Waloch for “Wysokie Obcasy” Patricia Volny she stated that she was not afraid to say openly that she had an abortion because “hundreds of thousands” of women in Poland made a similar decision.
According to the actress, the topic must appear in public discourse because this is the only way to relax the regulations. “We all know that being a mother is not about violets, it’s about everyday grind. It’s not for everyone,” she said.
Volny was 19 years old when she terminated her pregnancy. She lived in Australia at the time, where this procedure is allowed until the third month. “I am not a supporter of abortion, but of women being able to decide about their own bodies and whether they want to have a child or not,” she added.
The actress also referred to her experiences as a mother. Volny often faces accusations that she abandoned her daughter. After breaking up with her father, it was decided that the girl would stay with him in France. She emphasized that, first of all, she did not feel good in her relationship with her former partner. “I had severe depression, I lived in a completely indifferent marriage, I felt completely isolated in France,” she recalled. Her deteriorating well-being was also noticed by her several-year-old daughter.
She then wondered whether, as a child, I would want my mother to be stuck in a situation that made her sick, or whether I would want her to go for what she wanted and show me that I have to fight for what I have. Her childhood experiences also influenced her decision not to let her daughter return to Poland with her. “I also didn’t want to take away her identity, her school, her grandmother and grandfather, her aunt, the whole clan that I didn’t have. If I had taken her with me, I would have taken her like my father once took us to Australia: to a country where there is no no one close to you, you speak a foreign language, you have to start everything over again,” she explained. She added that her life decisions were criticized much more often by men. However, they were met with understanding among women.
The book “Uncomfortable” will be released on November 27, 2024. Volny focused primarily on her relationship with her father. “I would rather say that he was a wonderful father and I miss him very much. But life gave me another story that can translate into something useful. I would like it to make other victims of violence decide to leave the four walls with their suffering,” she said about Jacek Kaczmarski, who died in 2004, in an interview with Elżbieta Turlej for “Newsweek”.