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Los Angeles- It’s a cool and crisp Friday morning and the streets of Los Angeles are just starting to get busy with people on their morning commute.
The bus is crammed full of journalists from around the world. We’re on our way from our swanky hotel to the headquarters of E! for their yearly international press junket where media from across the globe get to meet the stars of the entertainment TV network’s hottest shows.
I’ve done my research and dug around to find out as much as possible about the shows and celebs we’re about to meet. But one stood out for me. The 19-year-old star of the hot new show, Hollywood Medium with Tyler Henry. Unlike the cliché we’re so used to, Tyler Henry comes with none of the preconceived notions we would associate with a medium.
With a glimmer of small town innocence this Los Angeles newbie is already making waves in Hollywood. Growing up in a little town in central California, Tyler began receiving intuitive mental images when he was only 10 years old with the foretelling of his grandmother’s death.
“I woke up one night and basically just had an understanding that my grandmother was going to pass away. I couldn’t quite explain it. It was just almost like a memory, like I knew something had happened before it even did,” Tyler explains to the media seated in the E! studios.
“That was really the first instance. When I woke up, walked into the kitchen and told my mom about what I felt I knew, she was really confused. And moments later, we got the call that my grandmother had actually died. So that was by far one of the most volatile moments. And that was when I was 10 years old. So being 19 now, it’s been 9 years of just various experiences.”
After this and a few other similar incidents Tyler recognised that his calling was to bring clarity and closure to those he was privileged to read.
Now out of high school and on his own for the first time, Tyler continues to work on managing his often-overwhelming gift.
He hones in on his talent in his first ever TV show, Hollywood Medium. Tyler’s client pool include celebrities like Jaime Pressly, Monica Potter, Margaret Cho, Ross Mathews, Tom Arnold, and Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, who all appear on the TV show.
During the first season of the show Tyler read almost 40 celebrities for the series. Each episode features 3 to 4 celebrities being read. And the best part of all? Tyler manages to silence even his biggest skeptics as he reveals inside secrets that nobody could ever know.
A celebrity from the other side
“I had a reading with Jaime Pressly and someone absolutely surprising came through. I kept seeing a B name. Brittany. And Jaime’s looking at me like I have five heads. There’s no one in her life named Brittany. She’s like I don’t know. And then finally as I described how this person passed, that’s when Jaime went: ‘Oh my gosh! That’s Brittany Murphy’.”
Tyler has no idea who he is reading when he knocks on the door of the celebrity he is about to interview. And sometimes that leads to some embarrassing moments for the youngster.
“Everyone came in with varying degrees of receptivity, but I found that one of the particularly interesting ones on just a human level was Boy George. He was really one of the most fascinating. Just to interact with him was really intriguing even beyond the reading portion of it. And I didn’t recognise who he was, so that was awkward. They got that all on camera,” Tyler explains.
The darker side
According to Tyler he can’t always share what he sees.
“Every reading had so many different revelations in some capacity one way or another. For me in readings, I really have to be diplomatic and use discernment in what comes through because there is a lot that comes through and it oftentimes is very personal.
“So there is an element of discernment. But for me, I usually feel like if I'm receiving a message, it’s not up to me to distinguish whether or not it gets delivered. If it’s coming through, it’s coming through with a purpose and I have to deliver it as well as I can. So I try to just really convey it as accurately as it’s coming through.
“And then as far as the most shocking, there were so many experiences throughout the show. I would say with Margaret Cho, one of the most interesting little revelations was I was holding onto a piece of jewelry that she had and I saw this piece of jewelry in a sock. I just had a vision of it in a sock. And Margaret validated that the ring that I was holding in my hand had been kept in a sock for years, as it had been transferred from a different country.
"And that was definitely one of those big moments. So it’s little details like that information that can’t be researched, information that can’t be Googled that we really prioritise and for me is what’s most important to come through, because celebrities are so much in the public eye.”
As the Q&A session draws to a close Tyler answers a few more questions before posing for photos on the iconic E! red carpet. Skeptic or believer you can’t help but be impressed by Tyler’s jaw-dropping readings to celebrities looking for advice, connection and closure.
Don’t miss this intriguing new series Hollywood Medium with Tyler Henry every Sunday at 21:00 only on E! (DStv 124).
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Channel24's trip to Los Angeles was sponsored.
