SHERIDAN Smith has opened up about the infamous joke made about her by Graham Norton at TV Bafta Awards in 2016.
That year, the 44-year-old was starring as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl in the West End but was forced to miss several shows, with understudies filling in for her.
Sign up for the newsletter
Thank you!
Sheridan Smith has opened up about a joke made about her at the TV Baftas in 2016Credit: PA
Host Graham Norton made a joke about herCredit: Getty
He alluded to her West End show being cancelled because of her drinkingCredit: BBC
At the awards ceremony, Graham, 62, alluded to the show being cancelled because she was drunk.
He said: “We’re all excited for a couple of drinks tonight. Or, as it’s known in theatrical circles, a few glasses of technical difficulties”.
Sheridan, who was sat in the audience, was left mortified by the joke. She was going through a difficult time in her life as her father had been diagnosed with cancer and had turned to alcohol and anti-anxiety medication.
After nearly a decade since the joke was made, Sheridan has addressed the incident again and admitted she felt “embarrassed”.
READ MORE ON SHERIDAN SMITH
broken webb
Mystery fall out revealed as Sheridan Smith and Charley Webb cut contact
FOUGHT THE LAW
Incredible story of mum’s 35yr battle to change law after daughter’s murder
She told The Times: “It’s reclaiming it because after what happened … I didn’t ever want it to get out so publicly.
“You’re embarrassed. I felt ashamed, and I still sometimes feel it, like, ‘Oh, I wish that part of my life hadn’t happened.’ But it did.
“It’s like my tattoos. Oh, God, I wish I didn’t have them, but I’ve got them now.”
The critically acclaimed actress went on to say: “hat was no one’s fault. That was just on me. I was in a bad state at the time.
“But I think you’re right, it maybe wouldn’t happen now. It is a bit kinder now.”
Unbeknownst to anyone at the time, that night Sheridan ended up in hospital after collapsing.
She was rushed to A&E after suffering five seizures that saw her stop breathing.
Four years later, she revealed her agony in her ITV documentary, Sheridan Smith: Becoming Mum.
Fighting back tears, she recalled: “Graham Norton was hosting and made a joke, basically at my expense, about me being a drunk.
“I was so humiliated, you know, it’s a room full of your peers. And people you want to work with or have worked with.
“That night for me was like the final straw, before my brain totally went off the deep end.”
She added: “What people didn’t realise was that I’d become addicted to anti-anxiety tablets.
“That night, I took myself off to a hotel on my own.
“In my crazy mind I thought, ‘I don’t wanna be in rehab — I’ll do it myself’ so I went there and I just stopped my tablets.
“What I didn’t realise is, that if you stop the tablets abruptly, you seizure. And, to cut a long story short, I got seizures five times and got rushed into A&E.
“Weirdly, a friend of mine rang me and she came to the hotel. It’s a miracle that she did. It was like someone was looking out for me.
“She’s the one who got me breathing again.”
She turned to alcohol after her dad was diagnosed with cancer in 2016Credit: Shutterstock Editorial
