Sarah Lancashire, 58, claims to be going through “the most terrible menopause” and was in Sainsbury’s without knowing what she needed to buy.
Millions of fans remember her as the witty Sergeant Catherine Cawood in the popular TV show Happy Valley.
However, Sarah Lancashire has admitted that she experiences brain fog brought on by the menopause in real life.
She even recently forgot why she was at Sainsbury’s to buy groceries.
The actress claimed she required two fans to keep cool at the ceremony due to hot flushes when chatting to The Mail on Sunday after winning Best Drama Performance for her role in Happy Valley at last week’s National Television Awards.
The 58-year-old woman admitted, “I’m going through the worst menopause.”
I have mental fog.
The other day, I was in Sainsbury’s and found myself standing in the aisle with no idea why I was there.
It just sweeps over you out of the blue.
Even events that occurred thirty years ago escape my memory.
Ms. Lancashire, who defeated James Norton, her Happy Valley co-star, to win a Special Recognition Award, admitted that she had to keep the two fans ‘pretty much on my face the whole time’ since it was so hot inside London’s O2.
‘I brought one of my closest friends with me, and his duty was to keep an eye out for the cameras, and if it seemed like they were going to pan across to us, then he’d let me know so I could hide them,’ the actress continued.
With her present husband, former BBC chief Peter Salmon, and a teenage boy from her previous marriage to music instructor Gary Hargreaves, Ms. Lancashire claimed she had turned to HRT to cope with the symptoms of menopause.
I’m currently using the gel, but it’s not working well for me, so I think I’ll try the patches next, she said.
The celebrity, who rose to popularity in the early 1990s as Rovers Return barman Raquel Watts in Coronation Street, is currently creating a television show and has called for a “catch-up” in the proportion of older women who appear on screen.
I believe that things are changing, and they have long needed to change, she remarked.
Because evolution moves slowly, we must keep up.
She added that efforts should be made to recruit individuals from a wider range of backgrounds.
When 7.5 million people watched the gripping conclusion of Happy Valley in February, it set records.
However, Ms. Lancashire announced that it would not return and expressed her gratitude that it had finished after three seasons.
The story was over, she added, warning that if you keep on, the impact will diminish.
In this manner, we triumph.
The actress, who has previously been candid about her struggles with mental illness, said that at the age of 18, she received a clinical depression diagnosis.
I had good and bad patches, she admitted.
Depression did hinder me in the beginning since I was too weak and afraid to explain why I couldn’t board a train from Manchester for auditions in London.
I firmly believed that if I revealed it, I would lose my job.
The worst thing for it were tranquillizers, and I ended myself in a dreadful mess.
My 20s were completely wasted.”