I HID MY CANCER
THE ACTRESS REVEALS HER BRUSH WITH BOWEL CANCER
Dame Julie Walters’ secret battle
She’s been a formidable force for so long that it’s hard to imagine the British acting industry without Dame Julie Walters.
But following her lifechanging diagnosis of stage three bowel cancer 18 months ago, the acclaimed actress says her next film, The Secret Garden, may be her last. She admits her attitude towards acting has completely changed and having to step back from work while she was having treatment for the disease was a huge relief in some ways.
“I was due to do two big series and there were two films,” she told TV presenter Victoria Derbyshire during an interview. “And I just didn’t have to do any of it. That was wonderful.
“It was a relief to get off this merry-go-round. It’s stressful, even if it is exciting stress. In between jobs, I work like mad on a character.”
Julie (70) missed filming a couple of scenes for The Secret Garden and also had to skip the premiere of Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again in 2018 while she was recovering.
Her PR team said she had a ruptured hernia, so she could keep her diagnosis secret.
“My agent said, ‘We are not going to tell anyone, that is up to you. We have said you’ve had a ruptured hernia.’
“I didn’t want to go to the
Mamma Mia! premiere, it was just a few weeks [after the surgery], and I thought, ‘Oh God, I’m going to have to lie to everyone.’ So [the hernia story] was put about.”
The following year she hinted at having been ill when she announced she was taking a year off work after a hectic schedule that included filming Mamma Mia 2 and Paddington 2.
“I want a rest because the last two, three years have been non-stop and I didn’t feel very well last year and was exhausted,” she said at the time. “I just thought, ‘That’s it now. I’m going to be at home and have a bit of space.’”
While she’s not announcing her retirement by any means, Julie says she’ll only take on a role if it’s something she’s “really engaged with and doesn’t have a killing schedule. I’m not saying I’ll never act again but I can’t go back to [working] six days a week, from five in the morning until seven o’clock at night with a big part, with having to learn lines and the stress of it.”
Julie adds, “I can’t blame all of that on cancer. I was getting jaded, but I liked being around everyone. I didn’t have the same excitement or drive that I used to have.”
Julie was filming
The Secret Garden,
which also stars Colin Firth, when she got a phone call asking her to go and see a specialist about some test results. She’d had a CT scan after consulting the doctor about symptoms including a stomach ache, heartburn and vomiting.
The specialist told her an abnormality had been found in her intestine, and he was worried it was cancer. Julie’s first reaction was shock.
“I was thinking, ‘That’s ridiculous, he must have made a mistake.’ I couldn’t believe it.”
Telling her husband Grant Roffey (63), an organic farmer, was difficult. “I’ll never forget his face. Tears came into his eyes.”
The Educating Rita star says she tried to be positive and stay focused on the encouraging words her doctor had said − “We can fix this. If you catch it early, bowel cancer is the best type of cancer you can have.”
But there were moments of fear, especially while waiting for surgery to remove a 30cm section of her colon, when she thought, “I may not come around from the anaesthetic.”
Fortunately it went well.
After the surgery, Julie also had chemotherapy, a treatment she was reluctant to have.
“I will never forget taking the first lot – my hand was shaking. I felt like I was killing myself.”
Thankfully, her chemo also turned out fine and didn’t cause hair loss. Ironically, she had shaved her hair to play a cancer patient in a 2010 TV movie, and when it grew back it was white. She chose not to dye it and revealed she was getting a lot of parts “because I have white hair and laugh lines.”
Julie admits when she first received her diagnosis she thought about her good friend, comedienne Victoria Wood, who died of an undisclosed form of cancer in 2016.
“I thought of her and how frightened she must have been because at least I could have an operation. They couldn’t operate where her cancer was. The last time I saw her in her hospital bed, I had it at the same time.”
It’s not the first time her family has had to deal with cancer either. In 1990 her only child, Maisie, developed leukaemia and became critically ill, aged two. Julie stopped working as her daughter underwent longterm chemo. Maisie (now 31) was given the all-clear at five.
“She means the world to me,” Julie said in an interview a few years ago. “The relationship between us is very intense, what with nearly losing her earlier.”
While Julie’s cancer battle was scary for her family as well as her, she’s happy to report she’s now doing well. “I’ve just had a scan and I know I’m clear.”
She says now feels like the right time to speak out too. “I had some symptoms but not the others. My discomfort was really slight. Just make sure you get checked out.”