Acting legend Joanna Lumley has detailed her traumatic experience after falling pregnant in 1967 with her son Jamie, whose father is photographer Michael Claydon.
The Absolutely Fabulous star, who was 21 at the time, had been told by doctors that she “could never have children” when she was a young model and admitted that she was “still taking slimming injections” while unaware that she was carrying him.
Speaking to her good friend Gyles Brandreth on his Rosebud podcast, the 77-year-old said: “I had been told that I could never have children and so when I was actually pregnant and went for a pregnancy test they said, ‘You can’t be pregnant’.
“Then, at about six months, I fainted when I was still modelling and they said, ‘Oh crikey, you are going to have a baby soon’.”
Around a month and a half later Joanna prematurely gave birth to a baby weighing just four pounds.
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The star said that while it was “thrilling” to have welcomed her son, she felt “quite cross” with the doctors who told her she could never conceive, adding: “It seemed something that you shouldn’t say to people unless you are really sure.”
Joanna recalled becoming “quite ill” following the birth because she was “so undernourished”.
“In those days they had slimming injections and so even while I was having a baby and didn’t know it, I was taking slimming injections and eating about one tomato a day, so it wasn’t the best way to be in those days.”
Joanna was then “out of work” and credits her parents for “saving her life” by “taking care” of both her and Jamie.
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Three years after Jamie was born, Joanna was briefly married to ‘Allo ‘Allo! creator Jeremy Lloyd.
The pair wed in May 1970 but split in September the same year. Joanna wrote of the marriage: “He was witty, tall and charming – we should have just had a raging affair.”
She went on to fall for conductor Stephen Barlow after hitting it off at a mutual friend’s wedding. They married in 1986 and have remained together ever since.
You can listen to Joanna’s full chat with Gyles here.
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