Miriam Margolyes admits she’s ‘lonely, anxious and depressed’ in lockdown away from her partner of 52 years
Miriam Margolyes appeared on Loose Women, discussing how lockdown four months in has been for her. (Screen capture via Twitter)
Miriam Margolyes has admitted that, after months in the throes of lockdown, she’s feeling “depressed, anxious and lonely”.
The British-Australian actor, 78, has been in a relationship with academic Heather Sutherland for decades, preferring to live separately for personal space reasons.
Appearing on the daytime talk show Loose Women Friday (July 24), Margolyes candidly described the unnerving sense of isolation she has been plunged into since lockdown was first enforced by prime minister Boris Johnson in March.
Margolyes said that other than a few housekeepers and friends, she rarely encounters people and that her experience of lockdown has been wrought by solitude.
She told presenter Jane Moore: “My friend Denise comes to help me and my friend Marina comes to help me, and I have a gardener, Marcos, and I can wave at him from the window.
“But actually, in my house, I don’t have anybody. It’s horrible.
“I’m lonely, and depressed and anxious and I don’t know what we’re going to do because we’re never going to get out of this.”
We’ve all got to have a bit of a friction, haven’t we?
She later told the panel that she didn’t realise coming out as gay decades ago that she “wasn’t supposed to”.
“It never occurred to me that loving somebody and going to bed with them was not on, just because they were the same sex as you.
“I never had a problem with it! And I know some people do, and I feel terribly sorry that they do.”
She wryly joked: “We’ve all got to have a bit of a friction, haven’t we?”
'We've all got to have a bit of a friction, haven't we?'
Miriam Margolyes tells the #LooseWomen why she never thought it was wrong to love who you love, regardless of gender.
Watch the chat ?https://t.co/uhvdBHHe6b pic.twitter.com/qsHQjaP41k
— Loose Women (@loosewomen) July 24, 2020
Miriam Margolyes not handling coronavirus lockdown ‘very well’.
Miriam Margolyes’ honesty during a time of intense upheaval has been noted in recent months following a string of television appearances.
Appearing on This Morning in late April, the actor openly acknowledged that she was not doing “very well” in lockdown, and spoke emotionally about her partner.
“I don’t know whether she would [want to be in lockdown together] because she’s an introvert,” she said.
“So she likes to be quiet and get on with her work, she’s writing a book about Indonesia.
“I’m not afraid of it and I think we really will try to be together from now on, because that’s what life is about, loving someone.
“I was lucky enough to find someone who was prepared to love me, I’m not that loveable – I’m smelly and noisy and all that sort of thing.
“But she loves me and I want to be with her for the rest of my life, that’s all I want.”
