Nadine Reid
TV presenter
Are you a fan of Halloween, and did you celebrate it growing up?
No! I grew up in one of those families where ghosts were bad and evil! Jamaicans don’t mess with ghosts or anything from the other side of the spiritual world. You step away, you never speak of it again! My mum always thought Halloween was like encouraging bad spirits to come to you. When I lived with Minnie [an elderly friend of Nadine’s], she was excited about getting sweets ready for the kids but I’ve never gotten into it. I never got dressed up or anything. These are the moments when I remember I’m not Irish! Irish people are crazy about Halloween.
How do you feel about scary movies?
Oh, I’m so scared of them. The last scary film I watched was about 22 years ago – The Blair Witch Project. When people talk about recent horror films, I just smile and nod because I’m petrified! I hear Candyman is back, I would never watch that.
Have you ever tried an Ouija board? When I was about 13, my friends came round and we did an Ouija board. What was I thinking? All I remember is, it spelled out the name of this guy that my friend fancied. She was definitely just pushing it because she fancied him! But I worry that I released dodgy spirits in my mum’s back garden.
Are there any superstitions in Jamaica that your mum and grandmother would have warned you about?
Oh my God, there are so many! When someone passes away, if a moth or butterfly comes into the house, they think it’s the spirit of the person. They have come to mind you and keep an eye on you. And my mum and grandmother would really freak out if a bird came into the house because that’s bad luck. My grandmother would also give out whenever I whistled, and she would say “A whistling woman and a crowing hen is an abomination to the Lord!” I would just ignore her [laughs]. I wouldn’t consider myself superstitious, but in the summer, we went to Arranmore Island and my friend’s daughter found some crystals. I was worried about her taking them off the island, but she took them. Maybe I do believe that there are some powers out there because I was freaking out...
Have you ever been to a psychic?
Yes, I have. I was so nervous! I went to a psychic before I started presenting. I used to work with this woman called Amy and she offered to read my cards, so I agreed. I was a make-up artist at the time but thinking about a change, and she said “Nadine, are you hiding behind being a make-up artist?” She said I was behind the scenes but I would be centre stage in the future. And then she said she saw animals in my future and now I’m surrounded by animals in Donegal – I have cows in my back garden! I thought she must have been wrong at the time, but now I think maybe she was onto something. At the same time though, I think you create your own destiny and we have multiple futures. And I wonder: do you change your actions based on what a psychic says? Do we really need to know the future?