It’s been four months since TV personality Jenny Powell underwent a life-changing hysterectomy, after spending almost a decade suffering in virtual silence. The former Wheel Of Fortune star, 56, started experiencing peri-menopausal symptoms about nine years ago but says the last two years have been horrendous – and she thinks it’s time women’s health was taken more seriously. “Even though I tried to send out all these positive, smiley, ‘everything’s lovely’ vibes, I was suffering,” she tells OK!.
“I had terrible bleeding, really bad, to the point where I was changing four times a day and in a job like mine, that isn’t good.” She adds, “I was a bit of a joke at yoga because I was always the one with the mat by the door so I could go to the loo about three times in an hour-long class. There was also a heavy congested feeling and I was always quite constipated. It’s been really bad over the past two years. And I just got used to it. It bemuses me why women’s health in this regard is so neglected.”
The idea of “getting used to it” bothers Jenny almost as much as her physical symptoms, but as a busy working mum to Constance, 24, and Pollyanna, 16, her own needs often came last. However, on a family holiday last summer, sun-loving Jenny, who presents a weekend Breakfast Club show on Greatest Hits Radio, stripped off to her bikini (“because I don’t see why I shouldn’t at my age!” she laughs) and some paparazzi shots highlighted something deeply worrying.
“They photographed me lying down and I could see a bump in my lower abdomen. When I got home, I went to the gynaecologist as it had got bigger, so I was concerned. “I eventually had an MRI and they told me that my uterus was the size as if I was about 16 weeks pregnant. I had fibroids, adenomyosis and full-on pelvic congestion.
“It was so big it was pressing on my intestines, on my bladder, on my kidneys. It’s only looking back – now that it’s gone – that I think, ‘Wow.’ And that’s why I put it all out there. Those of us in our fifties are the first sort of all-singing, all-dancing generation because we’re working, we’re keeping fit, we’re looking after our parents, our children, and we haven’t got time, so we just think, ‘I can live with that.’ But what we think is acceptable just isn’t.”
Jenny underwent a robotic hysterectomy in October and chose private care because of the five- year local waiting list, and fully appreciates how lucky she was to have that option. Shortly after her surgery, she posted a video of herself in hospital to what was then her 40,000-strong following (now almost 200,000). The footage amassed 2.5 million views, and she’s continued to share her experience online.
“Since that day I’ve been inundated with messages from women who are suffering. So my gynaecologist and I have found ourselves in this community that’s been created. It’s lovely, but it is a whole other job now!” Her partner of 12 years, Martin Lowe, has been a great support, she adds, and remained incredibly patient when their social calendar – including holidays – had to be planned around her symptoms.
“Everybody in the household is affected one way or the other and you don’t always want to show your vulnerabilities,” Jenny says. “My eldest daughter is 24 and the youngest is 16 and you want to be a strong role model. I don’t want them to look back and think, ‘Oh my God, when my mum was in her fifties we had to go through the menopause with her, it was awful.’
“I think that’s why I’ve tried to turn it around and do something good with it. So, when we went on holiday earlier this year I still wanted to wear my bikini. I’m proud of my scars. Even my daughter asked how I felt about them and I told her they’re part of me and part of my journey and my story, and I’m proud of how I’ve come through that journey.”
Jenny, whose parents are South African, started working in television at 16, so has practically grown up in the public eye. She was hired by the BBC in the mid 1980s to host music show No Limits (and can still remember her first interview – Annabella Lwin from Bow Wow Wow), before moving into Saturday morning kids’ TV on UP2U on BBC One with Anthea Turner and Tony Dortie, and later Gimme 5 on ITV.
She was also a Top Of The Pops presenter in the late 1980s before joining Wheel Of Fortune. Born in Essex, Jenny has a soft London accent, but she knows there were many questions about her heritage when she first appeared on screens. “I think a lot of people were thinking, ‘Is she Black? Is she white?’ Still to this day, maybe.”
Her parents, Myra and Leslie, are of Cape Coloured descent and escaped apartheid in the 1950s with Jenny’s older brother Russ. And if there’s one thing she’s learnt over the years it’s resilience. “Maybe it’s my roots, coming from where we did. My parents being the ‘wrong colour’, they certainly had resilience. My mum’s 92 and she’s not changed one bit. She’s up for everything. She keeps moving! She comes round to my house and sorts out the washing and gets busy in the garden. But I encourage it all because it’s good to keep moving.”
Her parents were married for almost 70 years before Leslie died, aged 93, in summer 2021. Despite seeing their happy example, Jenny’s not keen to tie the knot again herself, after divorcing her first husband when Pollyanna was a baby. Martin has been in her life since her children were young and Jenny’s of the opinion that there are far more important things for them to be focusing on, especially as her daughters are growing up fast.
Polly is still in education and Connie is an up-and-coming artist who also works in a London gallery – regularly phoning home to say “a Banksy has just arrived”, Jenny laughs. With Connie set up in London, Jenny is making the most of the time she has while Polly is still at home. “I’ve learnt that kids have phases and you have to let them go a little bit, then they’ll come back again. It’s about appreciating it all while it’s there.”
Now that she’s found her voice in the women’s health field, Jenny’s taking the opportunity and running with it. Her dream, she says – alongside finishing her yoga teacher training this year – is to host wellness retreats. “It’s almost like the second part of my career; where you’ve built up a brand, as it were, and you can use it as a tool. I think I’ll be going down the wellbeing, spiritual path, I can’t help it. It’s just what I’m drawn to. We can share those experiences, do some yoga, some breath work and wild swimming. I’ll just take it around and spread the love, I can’t wait!”
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