Miranda Hart has provided rare insight into her mysterious three-decade health battle and the moment she received her official diagnosis: she has Lyme disease.
In her new memoir, I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest With You, out Oct. 10, Miranda, who has taken a break from the spotlight for nearly the last decade, opens up about her plight and the time when she ” collapse”. of poor health.
While fans know the comedian, 51, as Chummy on Call The Midwife and from her light-hearted comedy of the same name, Miranda admitted behind closed doors that she desperately told doctors: “I feel toxic and poisoned.”
It took 33 years for doctors to discover that Miranda had been battling the bacterial infection, Lyme disease, after initially mislabeling her as agoraphobic, an anxiety disorder characterized by symptoms of anxiety in situations.
She remembers arriving at a doctor’s appointment crying her eyes out after being told she was ‘TATT’ – ‘Tired all the time’ and being told: ‘I just don’t know what to do with you.’
Miranda Hart has provided rare insight into her mysterious three-decade health battle and the moment she received her official diagnosis: she has Lyme disease.
The comedian was officially diagnosed while in lockdown and believes she contracted Lyme disease when she was 14 after battling unpleasant flu-like symptoms in Virginia.
The comedian was officially diagnosed while in lockdown and believes she contracted Lyme disease when she was 14 after battling unpleasant flu-like symptoms in Virginia.
She writes: ‘For me, it was the bewildering neurological symptoms I initially had, at fourteen, from Lyme, that I always found particularly difficult to deal with. And they got considerably worse as I approached my forties. Like fatigue due to the exhaustion of cells. Yes, all delicious.’
Of the moment she received her diagnosis, she adds: “I walked out of that Zoom call, closed my laptop, and sat there, still and horrified. So many emotions that surprised me, but I also immediately felt deep sadness and disappointment; for over three decades I had KNOWN that something was wrong. I remembered all the times I had told different doctors: “I feel toxic and poisoned, or it’s like I have the flu every day but I don’t have a temperature.”
‘(It’s amazing how the body can sometimes literally tell us what’s going on.) I felt the anger rise at times when I was told I must have agoraphobia.
“I was trying to treat it as such, when it turned out that it was the lack of energy and extreme sensitivity to light and sound that caused my body to collapse when I went out in any type of activity or stimulating environment.”
Miranda says she struggled with how to share the news of her diagnosis with her followers, fearing she would be perceived as “whiny” or “just tired all the time.”
But Lyme disease was wreaking havoc on her body and ended with “endless diagnoses.” In addition, fans soon noticed his absence from television screens.
In 2017 it was revealed that Miranda would not be returning to Call The Midwife, citing a busy work schedule as the reason.
But he later revealed during a stand-up gig in London that he had been suffering from “poor” health.
She said at the time: “I’m not feeling well right now because I was sick last year and couldn’t exercise.”
While fans know the comedian, 51, as Chummy on Call The Midwife, Miranda admitted behind closed doors that she desperately told doctors: “I feel toxic and poisoned.”
Excerpt taken from Miranda’s memoirs I Have Not Been Entirely Honest With You, available Thursday, October 10
In 2017 it was revealed that Miranda would not be returning to Call The Midwife. Later, during a concert in London, he revealed that he had been suffering from “poor” health.
The star also suffered the ‘unbearable sadness’ of losing her beloved dog Peggy in 2021 (pictured)
She later got a new dog, a Poochon named Patti, who fans described as her “healing dog.”
Speaking now, the comedian says doctors discovered he had battled Epstein-Barr, glandular fever, herpes, shingles and “other nasty illnesses that I don’t want to remember because they all sounded so horrible.”
Miranda describes suffering from chronic stress, with viral infections and injuries being her main stressor, and “years of fear of misdiagnosis.”
Living in London and a high-profile career added to the comedian’s “stress boat” until it all became too much and she “finally collapsed.”
She writes: ‘For years, I had woken up with symptoms that I now see were caused by 9 out of 10 stress, due to my undiagnosed Lyme and infections associated with an immune system disorder.
‘Anything I had to do that day would cause me extreme fatigue. That’s why I finally collapsed.
Reflecting on the moment that changed her life, Miranda says that if she had learned to eliminate stressors from her daily life, “my body could function efficiently again to recover.”
The star also suffered the ‘unbearable sadness’ of losing her beloved dog Peggy in 2021.
Miranda had had Peggy, a shih tzu-bichon frisé cross, since 2007 and credited her with helping her through difficult times in her life, including past heartbreaks.
She announced the death of her “loyal and loving best friend” on Instagram and said she was taking a break from work and social media.
She later got a new dog, a Poochon named Patti, who fans described as her “healing dog.”
Excerpt from Miranda’s memoir I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest With You, which will be published on Thursday, October 10.