WARNING DISTRESSING CONTENT: Before finding fame as the ‘Queen of Clean’, Kim Woodburn, who has sadly died at the age of 83, endured a tragic ‘watershed’ moment that changed the course of her life forever
‘Queen of Clean’ Kim Woodburn, who has died at the age of 83, enjoyed a stellar TV career. However, her early life was far from easy, with a tragic incident in her early 20s continuing to haunt her decades later.
Born Patricia Mary McKenzie, Kim’s childhood was marked by physical abuse. At the age of 16, the Hampshire-born star moved to Liverpool, where she worked as a live-in cleaner.
Sadly, this fresh start was far from the end of the future How Clean Is Your House? icon’s personal difficulties. At the age of 23, Kim found herself pregnant by a man who’d deserted her. Then, on February 22, 1966, came what Kim would later describe as “the worst night of her life”.
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While climbing the stairs to her flat, Kim, who was five-and-a-half months pregnant at that point, realised her baby was coming.
In her candid 2006 autobiography, Unbeaten, Kim wrote: “My little baby was coming out feet first. I’d never been so frightened or in so much pain in my life. I took the washing-up bowl from the sink, threw it on the floor and stood straddled across it.
“Then I got hold of a tea towel, wrapped it around the little foot and eased it gently out of my body.”
In a heartbreaking revelation, Kim recalled how she “could tell he was dead straightaway”. She remembered: “There was no sign of breathing, but he had such perfect little legs and hands.”
In a “terrible state”, Kim placed the body of her little boy in a bowl beside her bed and eventually fell asleep. The following night, she buried the stillborn child in a park.
According to Kim: “I put the baby on the ground and then knelt down and started digging with the spoon. As I gouged the earth, tears streamed down my face. I brushed them away with my dirty hands.
“When I felt I had dug down deep enough, I lowered my precious little boy into the hole and wrapped the towel around him before slowly replacing the earth. When the job was done, I still couldn’t leave.”
She continued: “I was in the pit of despair, blown apart. It was something someone should never have to go through. I could never go back there. It will always be with me, but it would be too painful.”
A police inquiry ensued after her autobiography was published, but ultimately, no action was taken. Addressing the reaction she’d had to this particular chapter in an interview with the Liverpool Echo, Kim said: “I’m bearing up under the strain of it all. And people have been so kind.
“I’ve had so many letters and phone calls from people saying lovely things, some from people who have been in a similar situation to myself, others just wishing me the best.
“What people forget is that all this happened 41 years ago when things were so very different.
“You had to be a virgin on your wedding day, and to be pregnant and single, there was an enormous stigma. I had no family to turn to. I was ashamed and frightened.”
After the death of her son, Kim, who was then still known as Pat, decided to change her name, in an attempt to move on from her troubled past. She picked Kim after Kim Novak, the legendary actress behind classics such as Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 nailbiter, Vertigo.
Following this “huge watershed” moment, Kim went on to find love with her retired policeman husband Peter, who is “heartbroken” over her death, which came after a short illness.
A representative for Kim shared in a statement: “It is with immense sadness that we let you know our beloved Kim Woodburn passed away yesterday following a short illness.
“Kim was an incredibly kind, caring, charismatic and strong person. Her husband Peter is heartbroken at the loss of his soulmate.”
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Source: Mirror
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