Vanessa Feltz: Gallbladder removal affected my whole personality

By Laura Harding, Press Association Entertainment Editor

Vanessa Feltz has said having her gallbladder removed “affected my whole personality”.

The TV and radio presenter said she does not usually discuss the procedure because it relates to “a very intimate part of my anatomy that I no longer have”.

Feltz has previously been open about her weight loss journey and has had a gastric band as well as a gastric bypass.

Speaking to comedian Katherine Ryan on her podcast What’s My Age Again?, Feltz, 64, said: “I did lose an enormous amount of weight, I think it was in 2008.

“Just through diet and exercise, relentless diet, relentless exercise, relentless privation, relentless, you know all of that.

“And then I did have to have my gallbladder out. And funnily enough there were pieces in the paper now about the fat jabs, saying some people are having to have their gallbladder out.

“Presumably because losing weight at speed isn’t good for gallbladders.”

She added: “I’ll say this is the only podcast I’ve ever done where I’ve mentioned my gallbladder. It’s a very intimate part of my anatomy I no longer have.

“I don’t normally discuss it in public but anyway, the lack of a gallbladder, it’s affected my whole personality.”

Feltz also talked about her distress over being single, following her split from former fiance Ben Ofoedu.

She said she is “single but reluctantly”, adding: “I don’t like it. I haven’t managed to adjust to it.”

“I come home and it’s an empty, dark, rather cold house and there’s no one there to say ‘was it all right’… there’s just no one. And it’s so boring. It’s so quiet. It’s so tedious.

“Your own thoughts roam and get bigger and bigger. And I already know my own thoughts. I don’t want to know more about my own thoughts.

“And that’s why I stayed so long in these doomed and hellish, sinister, ghastly relationships. Because I just couldn’t face the spectre of being on my own.

“It was a mistake. I do regret it. I’m not proud of it, and I don’t recommend it to anyone. And I wish I hadn’t done it, but I did do it, and that was the reason why I did it.

“I just couldn’t bear to come out the other end and just be alone. And now I have to just get on with, don’t I?”

Feltz also said she finds the Jewish experience in the UK “much more” stressful than before, following a rise in antisemitic incidents.

Asked if she thinks the current climate could have an impact on her stress levels, and then on your biological age, Feltz replied: “I haven’t thought about that at all.

“And I would say I hope not, but I wouldn’t be altogether surprised if it has some impact.

“It’s very, very disheartening. Heartbreaking. Lots of words with heart in it.

“You know, lots and lots of words like that. It really is.

“I’ve grown up, I’ve lived in this country all my life. And you know on my mother’s side, I think sixth generation British.

“I read English Literature at Cambridge, at Trinity College. My specialism was Chaucer… I feel in every particular part of my anatomy, my blood, my cells, my soul, British through and through, because I am.

“And if I’m not, what am I? What else am I if I’m not British?

“I mean, I’ve lived all my life and it’s all I love and all I know and all I am as far as I can see.

“And the idea that people might think me something else because I’m Jewish or decide they despise me before they’ve even met me, or try to stop me doing things or being things or going to places or, you know, judge me and despise me is obviously absolutely unbearable.”