Joanna Lumley opened up on growing older, her daily champagne and refusing to worry about her health in an exclusive interview with woman&home.
After decades in the spotlight, 79-year-old Joanna is a British broadcasting legend - and an icon when it comes to all things glamour and sophistication.
Known for her unmistakably velvety voice, incredible career in acting and comedy and love of the finer things in life, she embraced festive joy for our Christmas cover shoot. Sipping Bollinger while All I Want for Christmas Is You played, Joanna said, "God bless Mariah Carey. My Christmas isn’t Christmas without that girl."
Admitting that she enjoys her fizz in moderation and rarely gets too tipsy, Joanna told us, "I try not to pop the first bottle of champagne until after midday. I don’t always succeed. When I take it out of the fridge and it’s got my fingerprints on it, I think, ’How much harm could one small glass do?’ Truthfully, I’ve never really drunk much."
She added, "I can’t stand feeling woozy and I can’t bear drunken people, so I’ve never gone down that [route]. I have a glass and that’s it."
A cigarette or two, when she fancies it, is part of her routine, too. And, while she's grateful for her health, she doesn't let fears about it plague her.
"I don’t smoke a lot, either. I’ve had two today and I’ll have four more. I don’t count them and if I can’t smoke, I don’t. I don’t think about health. I’m lucky to have it, but I don’t purposely do anything healthily. I don’t think about what would be healthy," Joanna continued.
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Sharing her freeing mindset of relishing in what she is lucky enough to be experiencing and living each day to the fullest, she explained, "If you’re born, you’re going to die. If you’re born and don’t die, you’re going to get older. It’s crazy to ignore [the facts]. There’s nothing wrong with living each day as if it’s your best and last.
"You’re lucky if you just pop off and don’t have to go through some terrible debilitating disease, or lose your own life to caring, which a lot of women do, looking after children all their lives, then suddenly having to look after parents."
With 80 around the corner for Joanna, she's still as busy as ever. And doesn't intend on slowing things down. She's set to star in the upcoming Christmas special of BBC comedy Amandaland (alongside Absolutely Fabulous co-star Jennifer Saunders, no less) - and the Motherland spin-off is returning for a second series.
She's Grandma Hester Frump in Netflix's Wednesday, and her new read, My Book Of Treasures, a deep dive into her personal notebooks, is out now.
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Thanks to her packed schedule, Joanna has no interest in retiring and doesn't even really see what she does as 'work'.
"I imagined that, as I got older, life would slow down. I envisaged spending a lot of time gardening, weeding and sleeping in the afternoon, but this year has been unbelievably busy. I’ve had long filming days, travelling days, going over [to America] to promote things, fitting in shoots and commercials," she said.
"If I was putting lids on jam pots for eight hours a day, I’d love to retire, but I don’t [want to]. You keep going if you love it, and I do something I love.
"Most of my work isn’t like work at all. I love doing voice-overs, documentaries, writing – I loved doing my book – and gardening. I do a lot of them all. Maybe I want to do not quite so much. It’s always feast or famine, and I want just a little less feast."
You can read Joanna's full exclusive interview with woman&home in the Christmas issue of the magazine, on shelves now.
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