Miranda Hart has given a rare insight into her three decade mystery 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 set to be released on October 10, Miranda, who has taken a break out of the spotlight for nearly the past decade, talks about her plight and the moment she ‘collapsed’ from ill health.
While fans know the comedian, 51, as Chummy in Call The Midwife and for her cheery self-titled sitcom, Miranda has admitted behind closed doors she was desperately telling doctors: ‘I feel toxic and poisoned’.
It took medics 33 years to discover Miranda had been battling with the bacterial infection Lyme Disease, after initially mislabelling her as being agoraphobic – an anxiety disorder characterised by symptoms of anxiety in situations.
She recalls running out a doctor’s appointment in floods of tears after they told her she was ‘TATT’ – ‘Tired All The Time’ and said: ‘I just don’t know what to do with you’.
Miranda Hart has given a rare insight into her three decade mystery health battle and the moment she received her official diagnosis – she has Lyme Disease
The comic officially received the diagnosis in lockdown and believes she contracted Lyme Disease when she 14 after battling nasty flu like symptoms in Virginia
The comic officially received the diagnosis in lockdown and believes she contracted Lyme Disease when she 14 after battling nasty flu-like symptoms in Virginia.
She writes: ‘For me it was the unnerving neurological symptoms that I had got initially, aged fourteen, from Lyme, which I always found particularly hard to deal with. And they got considerably worse as I headed into my forties. As did the fatigue from the cell depletion. Yup, all delightful.’
Of the moment she got her diagnosis, she adds: ‘I got off that Zoom call, pulled my laptop shut and sat there, still and aghast. So many emotions, I was shocked, but I also immediately felt a deep well of sadness and disappointment – for over three decades I’d KNOWN there was something wrong. I recalled all the times I’d told different doctors, “I feel toxic and poisoned, or, It’s like I have 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 anger rising at the times l’d been told I must have agoraphobia.
‘I would try and treat it as such, when, as it turned out, it was the lack of energy and the extreme light and sound sensitivity that made my body crash when going out to be in any kind of activity or stimulating environment.’
Miranda says she struggled to know how to share the news of her diagnosis with her followers, fearing she would be perceived as ‘complaining’ or ‘just tired all the time’.
But Lyme Disease was causing havoc for her body and she ended up with ‘endless diagnoses’. Also, fans soon noticed her absence from TV screens.
In 2017 it was revealed Miranda would not be returning to Call The Midwife, citing a busy work schedule as her reason.
But she later revealed during an stand-up gig in London that she had been suffering from ‘ill’ health.
She said at the time: ‘I don’t feel myself at the moment, because I was ill last year and I wasn’t able to exercise.’
While fans know the comedian, 51, as Chummy in Call The Midwife, Miranda has admitted behind closed doors she was desperately telling doctors: ‘I feel toxic and poisoned’
Excerpt taken from Miranda’s memoir I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest With You – out Thursday October 10
In 2017 it was revealed Miranda would not be returning to Call The Midwife. She later revealed during an stand-up gig in London that she had been suffering from ‘ill’ health
The star also suffered the ‘excruciating sadness’ of losing her beloved dog Peggy in 2021 (pictured)
She later went on to get a new dog, a Poochon called Patti, which fans described as her ‘healing dog’
Speaking out now, the comedian says doctors found she had battled Epstein-Barr, glandular fever, herpes, shingles and ‘other nasties I don’t care to remember for they all sounded so awful’.
Miranda describes suffering from chronic stress with viral infections and injuries being her primary stressor and ‘years of fear from misdiagnosis’.
Living in London and a high flying career added to the comedian’s ‘stress pot’ until it all became too much and she ‘eventually collapsed’.
She writes: ‘For years, I had been waking up with symptoms that I now see were being caused by a stress pot at a 9 out of 10, due to my undiagnosed Lyme and associated infections from immune system disorder.
‘Anything I then had to do that day would cause extreme fatigue. That’s why I eventually collapsed.’
Reflecting on the life-changing moment, Miranda says if she had learnt to remove stressors from her daily life, ‘my body could get back to some efficient functioning to recover’.
The star also suffered the ‘excruciating sadness’ of losing her beloved dog Peggy in 2021.
Miranda had had Peggy, a shih tzu-bichon frise cross, since 2007 and credited her with helping her through tough moments in her life, including past heartbreak.
She announced the death of her ‘loyal, loving best friend’ on Instagram and said she was taking a break from work and social media.
She later went on to get a new dog, a Poochon called Patti, which fans described as her ‘healing dog’.
Excerpt taken from Miranda’s memoir I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest With You – out Thursday October 10.