Lynda Bellingham - life after divorce (From Bucks Free Press)

Lynda Bellingham - life after divorce

10:38am Friday 1st March 2002 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
•  

Life hasn't been easy for Lynda Bellingham lately.

Hidden behind her cheery smile and her homely image Lynda's life has been far from happy and idyllic

Four years ago she divorced her Italian husband Nunzio Peluso in a blaze of publicity and then Lynda who had been known for years as the Oxo mum was dropped from the advertising campaign.

"The last three years have been really tough," says Lynda. "This has been the most scary few years of my life. In one year I lost Oxo, I was divorced and I was 50. It has been unbelievably tough.

"During the past year I have had serious decisions to make about my life."

Lynda moved with her two sons Robbie, 19, and Michael, 14, from a large family home in north west London to a flat. And consequently she has had to downsize everything in her life.

" I don't have a cleaner, I don't have help, when I do work we manage."

Her weight went up and down like her life.

"When I'm stressed out I get fat. It was very easy to eat off my children's plates and drink wine all evening."

Then she went on a diet and whittled her weight down - but once she found her svelte figure producers and directors weren't happy with her.

"The worst thing I did was to lose weight and look half-way decent."

Lynda still keeps an eye on her weight but is no longer dieting.

"I still do my aerobics. I am careful with what I eat. I couldn't give up my wine. I do love my wine and I do love my food. I don't diet but I've got over comfort eating."

The turmoil over the last few years has made her into a stronger person.

"There isn't much that I'm frightened of now. The most frightening thing in life is what you think you are going to be frightened of."

Lynda, who grew up in Aylesbury, is now getting her life back on track.

This week she can be seen in the third series of At Home with the Braithwaites in which she plays down-to-earth Pauline the accountant.

"I love playing Pauline. She is so far removed from me, and so controlled to her detriment. She is so not me that I feel I may come away having learnt something."

Lynda has also recently been seen in My Uncle Silas, Waking Dead and Happy Together.

However, it was the sit-com Faith in the Future and her long running appearance in All Creatures Great and Small and Second Thoughts, and her many years as Britain's favourite mum in the multi-award winning Oxo adverts that made her a household name.

Although being dropped by Oxo was a financial set back for Lynda, she wasn't too upset .

"To be really honest I would have continued for all the obvious reasons that there was money involved and it gave me a certain amount of security, but I was so relieved that the decision was taken away from me.

"The most frustrating thing about being an actor is nothing is in your control. You just have to go with the flow. That is one thing that frustrates me enormously, and there is nothing I can do about it.

"The longer you are in this business the more people put you in your cage, your pigeon hole.

"What I have tried to do in the last four years is get away from that comedy slot which I love.

"I have decided to keep going. I will not go down without a fight. So I am determined that by the time I am 60 I will be best newcomer," she laughs.

Lynda says there is no new Mr Right around the corner, just yet.

"I must be giving off the wrong vibes. When I go out and men come up and say 'I know who you are', then I known this is not going to a relationship. And when you get to a certain age most men are married."

But Lynda is not dismayed.

"I'm lucky my work involves my social life. I do charity work, I go out and have a nice evening. I have to say genuinely that I have stopped worrying about it. Because I really want to get through this patch, and I want to enjoy the rest of my life with somebody, but if not I can have a nice life, I really can."

At Home with the Braithwaites is on ITV on Tuesday at 9pm