Dame Joanna Lumley opens up on stress, adventure and ageing gracefully
After a stellar career that has seen her become an award winner, a dame, a comedy legend, and a household name, Joanna Lumley knows a thing or two about balancing priorities.
In a candid interview with Good Housekeeping, the 76-year-old opened up about the stress she handles in her everyday life and the importance of realising you can slow down.
After speaking honestly about experiencing a stress-induced breakdown in her 20s due to burnout, she says she approaches life very differently these days.
"I will never, ever misread anything so badly again in my life," she says.
"Now, if I’m tired, I will make sure to put my head down and go to sleep. If there’s something completely awful happening, I deal with it head-on or I let it go. I don’t do stress any more; I won’t let myself go there."
Despite learning how to slow down when it comes to work, there's nothing Joanna loves more than adventure, with her work recently taking her to the Banda Islands, Zanzibar and Madagascar for a new series exploring the centuries-old spice trade.
"You can have an adventure at any age," she says.
"I’m not saying everyone should go and do a 14-day trek up some very steep mountains. But, if you’re like me and you’re scared of something, be brave. Chances are, you’ll come back and say: 'Well, wasn’t that something?"'
When not travelling to explore every corner of the globe, Joanna finds solace in her latest creative venture: a podcast, called Joanna & The Maestro, which she hosts with her conductor husband, Stephen Barlow.
The couple chat about their shared love of classical music, which Joanna revealed was born out of one of the pair's evening rituals.
"Every night, I have a bath and listen to Classic FM while Stevie is in the bedroom reading. During my bath, I’ll shout out questions about the music, such as: 'How old was Tchaikovsky when he wrote this?'" she says.
"Without fail, Stevie, who’s a musical genius, patiently puts his book down and answers me. So the podcast is me in conversation with him, asking all the silly questions that somebody like me has."
The pair first met when Joanna was 31 and they've been married for more than 35 years, but Joanna explained that marriage wasn't always on the cards.
"The truth is, if I wasn’t married to Stevie, I wouldn’t be married," she says.
"I’ve always loved men, but I never thought: 'Oh, I want to settle down.' It simply didn’t cross my mind. But there was something different about him; I was drawn to his whole mindset – and his knowledge of music."
While Joanna is always keeping busy with her various work ventures, one of her most incredible achievements remains when she was awarded a damehood from Princess Anne: even if she fumbled over her words while meeting the royal.
“I was met by Princess Anne, but sadly I was so overwhelmed with emotion that I could barely speak," she says.
"I apologised and she said: 'Don’t worry, you have a lovely brim on your hat.' She kept on talking before I curtseyed and went out into the Picture Gallery. Stevie was there waiting and I just burst into tears."
Image credits: Getty Images