‘MY DRUG IS THE SUN’
Straight-talking best columnist Ulrika Jonsson opened up recently about her ‘dangerous addiction’ – the sun. The unapologetic Swede, 52, admitted that, when she left her home country for the UK in 1979, she couldn’t believe how ‘pale, colourless and pasty’ Brits were – and confessed that she’d always exposed her kids’ skin to the sun. The star knows it will prematurely age and harm her skin – just as having four children has, she quipped. But it’s no joking matter, as she pointed out.
‘My drug of choice is the sun and as I’ve lived by the sword, I shall, no doubt, die by it — as long as it’s in the sun,’ she said. But she also explained that, as a Swede, from a country that’s ‘daylight-deprived’, it’s in her nature to sunbathe and be envious of those with a sun-kissed glow. She joked that she wouldn’t mind if she ended up looking like Sheila Reid’s character Madge Harvey (the one with the hilariously dark tan!), in TV hit Benidorm.
Ulrika said: ‘Fortunately for me, I tan easily, go a dark brown and I have no qualms about accepting that I look like Madge Harvey in Benidorm (OK, possibly a bit older).’ Indeed, she said, she sunbathes with ‘reckless abandon’ and refuses to apologise to the health-conscious ‘judgemental Tanning Police’ – and credited the unprecedented sunshine Britain has enjoyed since lockdown as ‘one of the only things that’s got me through’. But though she realises all the risks, Ulrika maintained, ‘I will not make any excuses for being a sun lover, nay, a sun worshipper. It’s in my DNA and will never leave me.’
We all love sunshine – it makes us feel good, and goodness knows, we need the positive vibes right now!
We just hope that all the sunbathing Ulrika’s doing – and sun-worshippers like her – is combined with lashings of high factor sunscreen, too…