With her fourth marriage well and truly behind her (and the thought of a fifth making her feel ‘nauseous’), Patsy Kensit tells Liz Jones how she quickstepped her way back to self-confidence on Strictly Come Dancing – and is finally happy to face the world alone
'I loved Strictly; I made friends, I lost weight,' says Patsy
Of all the contestants on Strictly Come Dancing, I wanted Patsy Kensit to win. She seemed the most in need of validation, a new beginning, happiness. Every week, she had a look on that lovely face that said, ‘I’m not enjoying this. I’m going to fail.’ When we meet a couple of weeks after she was voted off the show (London is in the middle of the big freeze, and she arrives wearing a knitted poncho, very high grey wedge ankle boots, a little unwise given the icy pavements, and with wet hair straight from the shower: ‘I’m washing my hair again; I must be feeling better!’). I tell her this, and she acts surprised. ‘I loved it, I did enjoy myself,’ she says, those blue saucer eyes as huge in her face as when she was the Birds Eye Garden Peas girl in the TV ads, aged four.
At 42, she is much more beautiful in real life than she is on screen. ‘I wouldn’t say I was depressed when I went in, it was more a confidence issue. I made friends: Ann Widdecombe, Robin Windsor, my dance partner. I lost inches off my waist. But yes, I’d had a really bad year. I had gone up to 11 stone – emotional weight, I think they call it. Going into that show was validation, in a way.’
Did she find it hard, watching herself on screen in rehearsals, sweating and wearing no make-up? ‘I’m not wearing any make-up now!’ she says. ‘I looked hideous, but that doesn’t bother me at all. I’m not, you know… I’m just a normal woman.’
The ‘bad year’ refers to the fact that, after only 11 months of marriage, she and DJ Jeremy Healy separated in March 2010, and then divorced. Friends said that Healy, 48, refused to go to counselling after a series of rows; instead he left the family home in North London to go to Paris Fashion Week (he puts the music together for the Dior catwalk show, for his friend John Galliano) and never came back. A lot of women – Jo Wood, Alesha Dixon, Jodie Kidd – seem to do Strictly after a marriage break-up. Was Patsy trying to prove something by going on the show, letting Jeremy know just exactly what he was missing?
The career girl...
From left: Patsy in the Birds Eye pea advert in 1972; with Mia Farrow and Robert Redford in 1974's The Great Gatsby
From left: Parents Jimmy and Margaret in the 60s; meeting Princess Anne at the premiere of Absolute Beginners in 1986
From left: With her mother at the Absolute Beginners premiere; as lead singer with Eighth Wonder, 1988
From left: Starring as nurse Faye Byrne in Holby City; with Strictly dance partner Robin Windsor
‘I’d been asked to do it before, and it wasn’t about that, no. I wasn’t depressed, but it was a way of getting my confidence back. Dancing, it really was a joy.’ She seemed a bit needy for the judges’ approval. Is that how she is in relationships? ‘If you’re in love with someone maybe you can show it too much.’
I wonder what on earth went wrong in her marriage. She had, after all, known Jeremy for years as a friend; she must have known what she was in for. ‘He was away working; I was working 12 hours a day on Holby City. But yes, I feel embarrassed that my friends gave up a Saturday to come to our wedding.’
The marriage was her fourth. Her first husband, whom she married when she was just 20, was Dan Donovan, the son of photographer Terence and member of 80s band Big Audio Dynamite. Her second was Jim Kerr, lead singer with Simple Minds (they have a son, James, 18). The third was Liam Gallagher (with whom she has a son Lennon, 11). I wonder what it is about musicians that she finds so irresistible? ‘I was on Chris Moyles’s show on Radio 1, and he asked me whether I was going to get off with one of the musicians on Strictly! I don’t know that it is music that attracts me. I’ve only ever chosen men who happen to spend a lot of time out of the country, who have jobs that take them all over the world, and I think that’s interesting because my father was absent, and then home, and I’ve always been in relationships where there’s separation.’ She laughs. ‘My father was in and out of jail.’
Patsy’s father Jimmy, who died in 1987, was an associate of the Kray brothers. ‘My mum was amazing. I could never understand why she stayed with him. She was just so beautiful and so wonderful. So my example of marriage, and partnership, was a very strong one.’
'I've always been in relationships where there's separation. My father was in and out of jail'
Her mother Margie died of breast cancer when Patsy was 22 (Patsy’s brother Jamie is five years older). ‘She was diagnosed when I was four. I think when a child realises his or her own mortality, you are robbed of a certain innocence very early on. I grew up thinking, “She could be gone in minutes.” I wanted to make enough money to buy her health, and buy her a house, and that was completely naive, and it didn’t quite happen.’
The day her mother died, Patsy had visited her in the hospice at 4.30am, and then gone to work on a film set. ‘I got the call in make-up that she had passed over, and this sort of quiet scream came out, but I still had to work, the job had to be done. [Fellow actor] James Fox sat with me for the entire day, and it was probably one of the most intimate things that I have ever had happen to me.’
Patsy has long had regular mammograms, and helps to raise money and awareness for Macmillan, the charity that supports those affected by cancer. ‘I wish I’d known about them sooner; I didn’t know who to ask for help.’
When her mother died, Patsy fell apart. Having divorced Donovan in 1991, she went on to marry and divorce Kerr, then to marry Gallagher. Does she look back at that 1997 cover of Vanity Fair, of her and Liam under a Union flag duvet heralding Cool Britannia, and think of herself as a different person? ‘It was a moment. Those were hedonistic years.’ Has she had counselling for the fallout from her fourth divorce? ‘I don’t have time! I’m a single mum.’
The wife...
From left: No 1 Dan Donovan, 1988; No 2 Jim Kerr, 1992
From left: No 3 Liam Gallagher, 1997; No 4 Jeremy Healy, 2009
She is close to all her exes -- and, astonishingly, to their wives. She even returned a reported £1 million advance for a tell-all autobiography last year when Liam asked her to think about how her sons would feel, reading about their mother’s relationships. James now works for Liam in his new fashion business (‘He loves clothes; he’s a proper little mod’). She seems particularly fond of Liam’s wife Nicole Appleton. I tell her Nicole like a younger version of her. ‘She’s just lovely,’ she says, revealing not an iota of bitchiness.
Patsy is keen to set the record straight when it comes to her divorces. ‘It’s a myth that I have been given this fortune by the boys’ fathers. The boys are well looked after, but I have to work.’
She has just left the security of working on hospital drama Holby City after four and a half years [she played Faye, the nurse who was catnip to men]. ‘On my last day, we had a leaving thing in the BBC bar and people stood up and said such lovely things about me. I had no idea the kind of respect that I had got through my work. Despite everything that was going on, I was never late for work, never. I never let it show.’
'The thought of getting married again makes me feel slightly nauseous'
Does she worry about the future, financially and emotionally? She and Healy had planned to move to Sydney and retire. ‘Well, I have the Strictly tour, which is great. It will keep my fitness levels up. It gives me somewhere to go every day.’
I tell her Carey Mulligan has just been cast as Daisy in the new film version of The Great Gatsby. Patsy, of course, aged five, played Daisy’s daughter in the 1974 version. Does she remember working with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow? ‘I remember one minute I was in a terraced house in East London with an outside loo, and the next on the set at Pinewood, where everything was Ralph Lauren. I remember my mum would always start to smile very broadly whenever Robert Redford was around.’ How did Patsy cope, being so very famous at such a young age? ‘My mum didn’t let me do interviews as a child, I think to protect me, and I think also because of my father…’
Patsy joined her brother’s band Eighth Wonder at the age of 16, which led to a starring role, aged 18, alongside David Bowie in Absolute Beginners, a film that was roundly trashed. ‘That was the first time that I was exposed to a lot of media attention and I did some stupid things, because, you know, who doesn’t when they’re 16. When I went on Strictly I told the producers I wasn’t going to read any press. When something bad is written about me, I find it hurtful. So I choose not to look at it.’
I ask whether her sons had been in the audience every week for Strictly, and she laughs. ‘No. On my last week, James was in the pub watching the football. They’re good lads. We’ve got fantastic communication; they know that they are the most important thing to me. It’s an unbreakable unit, particularly now. What I’ve learnt over the past year is that I was looking for something that I didn’t need: yet another relationship. You know, I’ve got my boys – they’ll grow up and hopefully I’ll be a grandmother!’
Is she lonely? ‘I’ve got a whole network of girlfriends, most of whom have children – I’ve known my best friend Angela for 23 years. I’m happy to be at home with the kids, in my flannel pyjamas; that’s a treat. I’ve got broad shoulders, that’s something I have realised over the years.’
Did Strictly make her feel sexier? ‘My shape changed in the show, I lost a lot of weight. Despite the fact I would always do 45 minutes on the treadmill before leaving to work on Holby, I was never able to shift the weight, but after six weeks of Strictly it fell off! But still I was never comfortable about showing cleavage, or my legs. I’m
middle aged – people don’t want to see that!’
and the mother
From left: Patsy with ex-husband Jeremy Healy and Lennon, her son with Liam Gallagher; at the premiere of The Firm in 2009 with James, her son with Jim Kerr
I ask if she plans to get married again, or even get involved. ‘I’m definitely not looking,’ she says. ‘If I was planning anything like that my boys would make a human wall to stop me. I’m still healing – I wouldn’t be human if I wasn’t. But it takes time. I don’t want sympathy from anybody. Yes, I’ve had a tough year, but I’m not unique in that; so many people are having a hard time. I’d be a liar if I said I’m over it or anything, but, you know, these things take time.’ So she’s not even on the market. ‘Absolutely not, the thought of it makes me feel slightly…what’s the word here? Nauseous? Yes!’
I tell her she should wait until she sees the photographer downstairs who’s preparing to take her photo for YOU: he’s a bona fide hunk. We walk down a flight of stairs to where the photo shoot is taking place. The photographer kisses her hello on both cheeks. She shoots me a look, eyebrows up in her hairline. ‘You were right, my God!’ she says in a stage whisper, giggling like a teenager. I don’t think Patsy’s life story is over just yet.
See Patsy on the Strictly Come Dancing Live Tour until 13 February, strictlycomedancinglive.com
For information about Macmillan Cancer Support, visit macmillan.org.uk or call 0808 808 0000