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I’m A Sexologist – Here’s Why Sex Is So Much Better (And Wilder) On Holiday

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With June just around the corner, Brits are about to head into peak holiday season.

And according to data from sexual wellness company LELO, 80% of us think some time away from home would reinvigorate our sex life, while 31% say going abroad makes them more adventurous in the bedroom.

We spoke to licensed sexologist, relationship therapist, and author at Passionerad, Sofie Roos, about why going on your hollibobs makes you so much more open-minded.

Part of it is plain ol’ free time

“We simply have more time” and fewer stresses on holiday, Roos says. This leaves us not only more able, schedule-wise, to engage in the horizontal tango, but also more open to be “inspired” (oo-er).

Then, there’s the fact that you’ll likely be in a better, more playful mood.

“We are the best versions of ourselves [on holiday], making it much easier to get passionate [and] wild and put in the energy in the sex that we normally don’t have the time or lust for,” the sexologist tells HuffPost UK.

We also reframe our relationship and our partner as we take in new sights, sounds, food, and even weather, seeing our beau and ourselves in a (sometimes literal) different light.

“We’ve got the sunrise and warmth making us feel better, we eat great food, are travelling and exploring new places,” Roos says.

This “creates a perfect storm that leads to great opportunities for feeling extra passionate, attracted and hornier – making the sex more fun, enjoyable and interesting!”

Can you recreate that at home?

Speaking to Yahoo Life, sex and relationship expert Natalia Baker from All Things Worn shares that you don’t need to wave goodbye to friskiness when you land back home.

Allocating relaxation time, planning spontaneous dates, choosing to carve out quality time together, and openly discussing your fantasies with one another can all help, she says.

“Being transparent about what you both enjoy and want to try can help recreate the excitement and anticipation felt on holiday,” she recommends.

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It’s Not Just Austen – Posh Accents Are Ruining Period Dramas, Historian Says

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At this year’s Hay Festival, Jane Tranter – former executive vice-president of programming and production at the BBC and current producer of Austen adaptation The Other Bennet Sister – said actors “start speaking posh” when they get a Pride And Prejudice-era script in their hands.

“Not everybody spoke posh in those days, so you have to work with that as well,” she shared (via The Times).

Pinched voices, fussy hairdos, and “weird hats” can risk leading to “such a fetishised approach that it becomes a barrier between the audience and what is going on,” she adds.

So, we spoke to author and historian Katie Kennedy (of viral account @TheHistoryGossip and new SKY History series History Crush) about what we lose when costume drama accents all start to sound the same.

Katie Kennedy
Katie Kennedy

Katie Kennedy

It’s not an isolated trend

Kennedy tells us the tendency isn’t limited to period costume dramas.

“It is widely known that the acting industry is dominated by the middle and upper classes,” she says.

In 2024, the Sutton Trust found that people from working-class backgrounds were four times less likely than their middle-class peers to work in any creative industry.

BAFTA-nominated actors are five times more likely to have gone to private school than the general public.

“While this is an issue in itself,” Kennedy continued, “it also heavily influences how history gets portrayed on screen.

“We’ve been sold this idea that everyone in the past was super polished and polite, and we’ve equated that with the classic RP [received pronunciation] accent.”

That’s not to say you can’t change up voices, actors, stories, or perspectives, especially in looser adaptations like Bridget Jones (expertly nicked from Pride And Prejudice) – but would-be “faithful” adaptations tend to sound distractingly, and sometimes inaccurately, similar.

The Brontës have fallen victim to the issue, too, Kennedy says

Take, the historian says, the 2022 film Emily.

“The Brontës are portrayed with soft-spoken middle-class voices, even though they most likely would’ve had an Irish or at least an Irish/Yorkshire mixed accent as their father was Irish,” she shares.

Indeed, Charlotte Brontë’s friend Mary Taylor said the author “spoke with a strong Irish accent,” while the British Film Institute admits star Emma Mackey’s “Yorkshire accent sporadically wanders down the M1″ in the movie.

“A lot of the time” in period dramas, “the working-class accent has been attributed to comic relief, or a character who has had a troubled life,” she tells HuffPost UK.

“When everyone in a period drama speaks the same, you’re not just losing historical accuracy, you’re also reinforcing the idea that the only ‘serious’ or ‘worthy’ people in history were the ones who ‘spoke properly.’”

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King Charles Shades Trump Over Threat To Canada: ‘The True North Is Indeed Strong And Free’

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King Charles appeared to show solidarity with Canada amid President Donald Trump’s threats to annex the United States’ northern neighbour.

The monarch signalled support for Canadian sovereignty on Tuesday as he delivered a historic speech to the country’s Parliament that made repeated references to the ongoing tensions with the Trump administration.

Charles, who serves as head of state of the former British colony, said Canada is facing “unprecedented” challenges and that “many Canadians are feeling anxious and worried about the drastically changing world around them.”

In a thinly-veiled rejection of Trump’s stated aspiration to turn Canada into the 51st US state, Charles earned an extended round of applause when he told lawmakers that “the True North is indeed strong and free” — a reference to a line in Canada’s national anthem.

The speech came during a two-day visit to Canada by the King and Queen Camilla. The trip is widely seen as a show of support in the face of Trump’s sabre-rattling, which has included levying sweeping tariffs on Canadian goods.

Trump’s grandstanding helped propel Prime Minister Mark Carney’s centre-left Liberal Party to an unexpected federal election win last month.

The King on Tuesday was delivering a “Speech from the Throne,” an address that marks the start of a new session of the Canadian Parliament.

It’s rare for the British monarch to make the speech, which is written by the prime minister’s office, and Charles outlined the Carney government’s priorities in the address.

Charles’ mother, Queen Elizabeth II, did it twice before, in 1957 and 1977. The 76-year-old king’s commitment to Canada was underlined by the fact he made the trip while undergoing cancer treatment.

The speech itself was littered with remarks about US-Canadian relations and wider global unrest.

“We must face reality: Since the Second World War, our world has never been more dangerous and unstable. Canada is facing challenges that, in our lifetimes, are unprecedented,” Charles said in French.

Noting that Canada faces a “critical moment,” Charles said “self-determination” is one of the values “Canadians hold dear,” a clear allusion to the annexation threat.

And the King explicitly acknowledged Carney and Trump “defining a new economic and security relationship between Canada and the United States, rooted in mutual respect and founded on common interests to deliver transformational benefits for both sovereign nations.”

It was his closing remarks that are likely to be seen as the most significant.

“I wish to express to you and to the people of Canada my heartfelt gratitude, and that of my wife, for the warmth of the welcome which we have received,” Charles said. “As the anthem reminds us: The True North is indeed strong and free.”

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Peter Mandelson Confronted By Sky News Reporter Over His Links To Jeffrey Epstein

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Peter Mandelson has been confronted by a Sky News reporter over his links to Jeffrey Epstein.

The Labour peer, who is the UK’s ambassador to the United States, was quizzed by James Matthews after delivering a speech in Washington.

Epstein, the convicted sex offender and financier who died in 2019, allegedly had a “close relationship” with both Mandelson and Prince Andrew, according to an internal JPMorgan report from six years ago.

Asked by Matthews if he had stayed at Epstein’s apartment in Manhattan in June, 2009, Mandelson said: “I’m not answering any questions about him.”

The reporter then said: “He was in jail at the time for soliciting prostitution from a minor.”

Mandelson said: “My knowledge of him is something I regret. I wish I’d never met him in the first place.”

Matthews then asked again: “Why did you have an association with him, because he was in jail at the time?”

Walking off, the Labour peer replied: “Why did many people meet him? He was a prolific networker and I wish I’d never met him in the first place.”

In February, Mandelson told Financial Times political editor George Parker to “fuck off” when he asked him about his links to Epstein.

“I regret ever meeting him or being introduced to him by his partner Ghislaine Maxwell,” Mandelson said.

She is currently in prison for recruiting and trafficking underaged girls for the financier.

Mandelson also said: “I regret even more the hurt he caused to many young women.”

However, according to the FT report, “an icy chill” then descended during their conversation, and Mandelson added: “I’m not going to go into this. It’s an FT obsession and frankly you can all fuck off. OK?”

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Dani Harmer’s Not Alone – 62 Perimenopause Symptoms That Can Start In Your 30s

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In a recent TikTok, former Tracy Beaker actor Dani Harmer spoke about her recent perimenopause diagnosis as she sought advice for her “thinning” hair.

The former Strictly Come Dancing contestant, 36, says her husband asked her to see her GP when he noticed her “whole personality had pretty much changed.”

Before she learned she was perimenopausal, the star added, “I was so down”.

She continued, “I’ve struggled with depression and anxiety pretty much since I was a teenager, but there was something really different about me, and in myself, I knew that something was off”.

Dani said she had also been affected by brain fog, night sweats, and bad sleep, all of which are common signs of perimenopause.

Though some commenters were surprised to learn about the actor’s condition (with one TikTok user saying, “Whaaaat? You’re about 17 years old”), perimenopause in your 30s is perfectly possible.

Here’s what perimenopause means, 62 of its signs, and what to do if you suspect it (like Dani, you should seek help if you struggle with any symptoms).

What is perimenopause, and why can it start in your 30s?

Perimenopause is “when you have symptoms of menopause but your periods have not stopped,” the NHS says.

You are officially in menopause when you have not had your period for 12 months.

The average age to start menopause in the UK is 51. You count as being in “early” menopause if it begins before you turn 45, and “premature” menopause if you’re under 40, the NHS says.

But perimenopause can start as many as 14 years before menopause officially begins. Cleveland Clinic says perimenopause can start “as early as your mid-30s or as late as your mid-50s”.

Just because your periods don’t stop during perimenopause doesn’t mean it can’t “have a big impact on your life, including relationships and work,” the NHS says.

Anxiety, mood swings, brain fog, hot flushes and irregular periods are common signs.

Don’t wait until you lose your period to see your GP about perimenopause symptoms if they’re affecting your life.

What are the symptoms of perimenopause?

The symptoms of perimenopause are the same as those of menopause, minus the absence of periods. Some women will experience them at different levels of intensity during menopause or perimenopause.

Some signs, like irregular periods, will be more noticeable during perimenopause.

A BMC Women’s Health study found that, on average, people experiencing menopause or perimenopause had about 10.7 symptoms.

Menopause care specialist Dr Naomi Potter previously shared 62 possible symptoms with HuffPost UK, which are:

  1. Palpitations
  2. Chest pain
  3. Breast tenderness
  4. Itchy skin
  5. Dry skin
  6. Rosacea
  7. Acne
  8. Thin skin
  9. Collagen loss
  10. Crying
  11. Brain fog
  12. Memory loss
  13. Poor concentration
  14. Difficulty finding the right words
  15. Anxiety
  16. Low mood
  17. Worsening PMS
  18. Anger or rage
  19. Irritability
  20. Headache
  21. Migraines
  22. Joint pain
  23. Joint stiffness
  24. Vaginal dryness
  25. Vaginal discharge
  26. Vulval itch
  27. Perineal itch
  28. Vulval/vaginal ‘electric shocks’
  29. Increase in thrush
  30. Increase in bacterial vaginosis
  31. Poor libido
  32. High libido
  33. Weight gain
  34. Hair loss (on your scalp)
  35. Unwanted hair growth
  36. Urinary infections
  37. Urinary incontinence
  38. Urinary urgency
  39. Nocturia (getting up at night to pee)
  40. Sexual dysfunction
  41. Chest tightness
  42. Constipation
  43. Gastric reflux
  44. Fatigue
  45. Night sweats
  46. Hot flushes
  47. Cold flushes
  48. Increased period frequency
  49. Decreased period frequency
  50. Heavier periods
  51. Muscle loss
  52. Tinnitus
  53. Dry eyes
  54. Watery eyes
  55. Burning mouth
  56. Gum disease
  57. Foot pain
  58. Frozen shoulder
  59. Insomnia
  60. Histamine sensitivity
  61. New allergy
  62. Body odour change.

What if I think I’m perimenopausal?

It bears repeating ― don’t wait until menopause begins to see your GP if you are experiencing symptoms, no matter what age you are.

Even if you aren’t in perimenopause, the symptoms are worth investigating.

And if you are, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can help replace the oestrogen and progesterone your body loses during menopause and perimenopause.

According to the NHS, “The main benefit of HRT is that it can help relieve most menopause and perimenopause symptoms, including hot flushes, brain fog, joint pains, mood swings and vaginal dryness”.

Dani has said, “I’m really glad that I went and I got help. My doctor was more than happy to put me on HRT, and I’ve been on it for about 18 months now”.

She says her symptoms have mostly gone, except for hair thinning and the occasional hot flush.

Your doctor can help you to work out which solutions are best for you, so speak to a professional as soon as you notice symptoms.

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Russia Tries To Downplay Trump’s Claim Putin Has Gone ‘Absolutely Crazy’

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Russia downplays Donald Trump’s latest criticism of Vladimir Putin over the Ukraine war, describing the response as a sign of “emotional overload”.

The US president accused his Russian counterpart of going “absolutely CRAZY,” blaming Putin for “needlessly killing a lot of people” following yet another massive assault on Ukraine over the weekend.

He added: “I’ve always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!”

Trump has tried to force both Ukraine and Russia to negotiate an end to the war even though the conflict was triggered by Putin’s land grab in 2022.

The US president has often expressed sympathy towards Russia’s aggression and suggested Ukraine will have to concede land in the name of peace.

However, four months after Trump formally took office, Putin is yet to agree to even a 30-day ceasefire.

Many international peace efforts have faltered and temporary truces have been quickly broken by new Russian attacks.

Even so, after Trump’s sudden rant against Putin on his social media platform Truth Social, the Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov clearly tried to strike a more conciliatory tone in his response.

He said: “Of course, the start of the negotiation process, for which the American side made a lot of effort, is a very important achievement and we are truly grateful to the Americans and personally to President Trump for their help in organising and launching this negotiation process.

“It’s a very important achievement. Of course, at the same time this is a very important moment which is connected to an emotional overload of everyone involved and emotional reactions.

“We carefully monitor all the reactions. However, President Putin takes those decisions which are necessary for the security of our country.

“We all witnessed how the Kyiv regime threatened foreign leaders before they came to Moscow to commemorate Victory Day. Everyone heard these threats by the Kyiv regime.

“And many leaders who were here witnessed attempts by the Kyiv regime to strike Russian territory with drones, large cities, even the capital, on the eve of such an important day. These attempts continue. We are forced to take measures and President Putin does what is necessary to provide security for Russia.”

The response completely overlooked the US president’s renewed threat of imposing fresh sanctions on Russia.

Trump told reporters on Sunday night he was “absolutely” considering new

He continued: “I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin. I’ve known him a long time. Always gotten along with him.

“But he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all.”

Meanwhile, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch appears to have been praised by the Russian Embassy in London, after she said on Sunday that Ukraine was fighting “a proxy war” against Russia on western Europe’s behalf.

Her remarks were then quoted approvingly by the Embassy, which said Badenoch had “finally called a spade a spade”.

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Kamala Harris Takes Subtle Swipe At Elon Musk In Rare Appearance

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Former US Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday took an apparent swipe at billionaire Elon Musk over his stance on empathy, while conceding that she is deeply concerned about the current state of the world, in one of the few public appearances she’s made since leaving office.

Speaking at the Australian Real Estate Conference, Harris alluded to recent remarks by Musk, who has now significantly scaled back his role in the Trump administration — a stark contrast to his constant presence by President Donald Trump’s side in the early days of his second term.

“There was someone that is very popular these days, at least in the press, who suggested that it is a sign of the weakness of Western civilisations to have empathy,” Harris said, according to The Guardian, without naming Musk.

“Imagine. No, it’s a sign of strength to have some level of curiosity and concern and care about the well-being of others,” she continued.

During an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience in March, Musk suggested that while caring for others is important, it’s a double-edged sword.

“The fundamental weakness of Western civilisation is empathy, the empathy exploit,” Musk said. “There it’s they’re exploiting a bug in Western civilisation, which is the empathy response.”

Musk has limited his role in the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, the cost-cutting initiative he repeatedly touted, amid polls showing that the public was souring on him and signs of trouble for his electric car company Tesla, seeming to stem in part from his involvement in the Trump administration. But what appears to have been a “turning point” for Musk was the defeat of the conservative candidate he backed in the race for a seat on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court, according to The New York Times. Musk privately acknowledges his involvement was counterproductive, the Times added.

The tech billionaire, a major donor in Trump’s 2024 campaign, has also said he will scale back his political donations going forward.

“In terms of political spending, I’m gonna do a lot less in the future,” he told an economic forum in Qatar last week.

“I think I’ve done enough,” he added.

Harris, who is reportedly mulling a run for California governor following her defeat in the 2024 presidential race, also expressed profound concern about the current state of the world amid Trump’s pursuit of his America First agenda.

“I do worry that it is important that we remember history,” Harris told the audience, according to The Guardian, without referencing Trump. “It’s important that we remember the 1930s. It’s important that we remember that history has taught us that isolation does not equal insulation.”

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Trump Marks Memorial Day With All-Caps Rant At ‘Scum’ And ‘Monsters’

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US President Donald Trump marked Memorial Day by posting an all-caps rant on social media that attacked Democrats as “scum” and condemned federal judges as “monsters.”

Trump’s grievance-filled message on Truth Social on Monday, posted on a day of sombre reflection for most Americans, saw the president also smear immigrants as “criminals” and “mentally insane.”

The president reportedly deleted an earlier version of the post in favour of a simple “happy Memorial Day!” before publishing the attack again with the typographical errors corrected.

In the post, Trump wished a “happy Memorial Day to all,” including the “scum that spent the last four years trying to destroy our country through warped radical left minds, who allowed 21,000,000 million people to illegally enter our country, many of them being criminals and the mentally insane, through an open border that only an incompetent president would approve.”

He added that US judges were “on a mission to keep murderers, drug dealers, rapists, gang members, and released prisoners from all over the world, in our country so they can rob, murder, and rape again — all protected by these USA hating judges who suffer from an ideology that is sick, and very dangerous for our country.”

The president added that he hoped the Supreme Court “and other good and compassionate judges throughout the land” would save the country from “the decisions of the monsters who want our country to go to hell.”

Many of Trump’s policies have faced opposition from the lower courts, notably over his plans to crack down on immigration.

One federal judge has found that members of his administration may be liable for contempt after ignoring his order to turn around planes deporting people under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

In a spree of Memorial Day posts, Trump also praised his own tariffs policy, claimed that the “golden age” of America is coming, and let rip at Vladimir Putin of Russia.

Trump also said he wants to pull $3 billion in taxpayer cash from Harvard University in the ongoing fight with the Ivy League school.

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Labour’s First Renationalised Train Service Gets Off To A Hilarious Start

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The first train to be brought back into public ownership under Labour was (metaphorically) derailed today, turning the major moment into a bit of damp squib.

South Western Railway (SWR) officially came under public ownership at around 2am on Sunday morning as part of the government’s promise to create “better services”.

The first service of the day – normally be the 2.27am train from Guildford to Waterloo – was cancelled.

So that meant the pressure was on the 5.36am service from Woking to London Waterloo to mark the historic occasion.

But any jubilation from the occasion quickly evaporated when the journey had to rely on a rail replacement bus service between two stops, Surbiton and Clapham Junction.

It turns out that bank holiday engineering works had overrun meaning the train was no longer able to go down the intended track.

But Keir Starmer seemed to overlook the embarrassment this morning, claiming on social media that his new public ownership scheme was “just the start”.

“After decades of Tory failure, our Plan for Change will put passengers first, as promised. That will mean better services, with simpler ticketing, on more comfortable trains,” the prime minister wrote on X.

The Department for Transport also promoted the “historic” occasion, claiming it “kicks off a reset of the railways to improve performance and boost economic growth as part of the Plan for Change.”

Despite this government spin, many people were quick to complain – including Liberal Democrat MP Monica Harding.

“This is hardly the fresh start my constituents in Esher and Walton were promised,” she wrote on X. “Let’s hope SWR under government control gets better than this!”

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First day of SWR’s renationalisation and all trains from stations in Hersham, Hampton Court, Thames Ditton, Esher, Hinchley Wood, Claygate and Walton on Thames to London Waterloo are replaced by buses – a rail replacement service!

This is hardly the fresh start my constituents… pic.twitter.com/W43Z7XiAwO

— Monica Harding MP (@monicabeharding) May 25, 2025

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First day of SWR’s renationalisation and all trains from stations in Hersham, Hampton Court, Thames Ditton, Esher, Hinchley Wood, Claygate and Walton on Thames to London Waterloo are replaced by buses – a rail replacement service!

This is hardly the fresh start my constituents… pic.twitter.com/W43Z7XiAwO

— Monica Harding MP (@monicabeharding) May 25, 2025

Others, of course, wasted no time in finding the hilarity of the situation.

Obviously can’t get enough of this story and very symbolic as the first privatised rail service in 1994 was also a bus replacement service*. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article…*To quote a poet: “After wondering to myself whether or not it should actually be called a train replacement service….”

— Jim Waterson (@jim.londoncentric.media) 2025-05-23T09:53:52.431Z

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South Western Railway starts as it means to carry on in public ownership as very first service is a replacement bus, (We didn’t’ even need to make this up) pic.twitter.com/xuPYAslPJn

— The Rotherham Bugle (@Rotherhambugle) May 25, 2025

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South Western Railway starts as it means to carry on in public ownership as very first service is a replacement bus, (We didn’t’ even need to make this up) pic.twitter.com/xuPYAslPJn

— The Rotherham Bugle (@Rotherhambugle) May 25, 2025