From a brief stint on ITV’s Blind Date in 1991, Amanda Holden has carved out an impressive TV career, with acting roles in shows like EastEnders and Wild at Heart, as well as her high-profile position as a regular judge on Britain’s Got Talent.
However, she admits she’d willingly take any job to provide for her family if “it all went t***-up” and her showbiz career vanished.
Describing herself as “a waitress that got lucky,” she told the Daily Mail: “If it all went t*** up tomorrow I’d be gutted, but I’d work as a cashier in Tesco again.
“I’d do anything it took to make sure I brought cash in,” she added. “It’s about self-preservation, dignity and keeping going.”
Amanda began acting in amateur productions at the tender age of nine, but has held numerous different part-time jobs over the years, alongside her showbusiness career. ‘I’ve waitressed, cleaned, made beds, picked fruit anything I could to earn a living,” she said, before adding “within reason,” reports the Express.
Amanda emphasises that it’s always been crucial to her to have a decent income, a motivation that has only intensified since becoming a mother. Amanda shares three children with her husband, record producer Chris Hughes.
Amanda reveals that, even after 16 years of marriage, she still enjoys being naked at home and that Chris will sometimes chase her around the house “like Benny Hill”.
“There’s no wokery in our house,” Amanda adds, “We don’t hold anything back, and we have strong opinions.”
However, as her 54th birthday approaches this weekend, Amanda is grappling with the realities of growing older.
Her close friends Jamie Theakston and Davina McCall have both experienced concerning health scares in the past year, heightening Amanda’s acute awareness of mortality, which she believes comes with parenthood.
Amanda herself endured a terrifying health ordeal that reshaped her outlook on life. In 2012, she suffered a severe haemorrhage while giving birth to her daughter, Hollie, leading to a coma and her heart stopping for 40 seconds.
In her autobiography, she recounted pleading with her husband Chris not to let her die: “Unbeknown to everyone, my placenta had attached itself to my bladder, and when they lifted it out, it snagged a large artery and ruptured it. I had haemorrhaged and was bleeding to death.
“I looked at Chris and said, ‘Don’t let me die’.”