The Emmerdale and EastEnders star shares son James with Simple Minds singer Jim Kerr and Lennon with Oasis’ Liam Gallagher – she opens up about how changes in their relationship have ‘broken her heart’
Patsy Kensit has shared how changes in her relationships with sons James and Lennon have “broken” her heart and the parenting mistake that “wasn’t fair” to them.
Talking to Ateh Jewel on HELLO!’s Second Act podcast, the soap star revealed how difficult it was when her sons left home. “It’s just broken my heart because they grow and they leave,” Patsy, 57, said.
She added how mistakes she made impacted her children: “I have two sons, I was so codependent on them to the point it wasn’t fair on them. I could sense that in them.
“They’re 24 and 33, I mean, I had a child at that age, and so I think for a few years I put way too much pressure on them.”
Patsy shares her sons with two world famous musicians – James, her eldest whose father is Simple Minds singer Jim Kerr, and Lennon, who she had with ex-husband and Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher.
Elsewhere in the episode, Patsy opens up about her own childhood. Her father, James, was a ‘career criminal’ and closely connected with notorious London gangsters The Krays, to the extent that Reggie Kray was Patsy’s godfather. However, it was her relationship with her mother that she opened up about.
Margaret, a former model, was diagnosed with terminal cancer when Patsy was 11. The impact it had on her life led to a PTSD diagnosis in 2023.
“In her 30s, my mother was terminally ill, she got diagnosed with cancer. It was a death sentence in those days, and she absolutely fought the illness,” Patsy said. “She died when I was 22.
“By the age of 11, I’d been to say goodbye to her probably about a dozen times. We’d get the call that she’s not going to say, make it through the night. We all get down to the hospital and then she pulls through. I think her worry was for my brother and I. What would happen to us?”
Her relationships with her family were not the only topic of discussion. Patsy’s relationship with money has been as complicated and resulted in having to start over in her 50s, despite starring in Hollywood blockbusters like Lethal Weapon 2. “I lost everything about 5 years ago,” she shared.
“I have more anxiety around it then you would ever believe. But you’ve just got to face things and work through them.”
Patsy started working aged four, when she appeared in a TV advert for Birds Eye frozen peas in 1972. She has worked consistently since then, appearing in films like the 1974 version of The Great Gatsby, starring Robert Redford, musical film Absolute Beginners and a number of soaps and dramas, such as Emmerdale, where she played Sadie King, and EastEnders, where she played Emma Harding.
It’s the latter role Patsy hopes to return to: “I’d love to go back to EastEnders.”
She added that last time, though it was her “dream job”, she wasn’t supported when taking it.
“That, to me, was a dream job, and I was in a relationship at the time, and it wasn’t really a job that I was encouraged to take.”
But, now out of a relationship and happily single, things are looking up for Patsy. She also told Ateh Jewel that she has been loving spending time with her good friend, Elizabeth Hurley, who celebrated her 60th birthday recently and the release of her reality competition show The Inheritance.
“Her and I just fell in love instantly,” Patsy said. “For her sixtieth, she’s got a beautiful place in the country. The whole family adopted me a little bit.”
Second Act with Ateh Jewel is available on all podcast providers.
