We shouldn’t tell ourselves what we can and cannot do
Amanda Holden tells AMY PACKER about her jaw health problems and why she doesn’t have diets in her house...
FIVE minutes into our chat, Amanda Holden takes one perfectly manicured fingernail and starts flicking herself in the face. “I can’t feel anything!” she exclaims.
The numbness, however, isn’t the result of too much rosé wine with lunch or botched cosmetic surgery.
Two years ago the Britain’s Got Talent star, 50, had all four wisdom teeth removed and ever since then the left side of her bottom lip and part of her jaw have lost all sensation.
“I can’t feel a thing from here to here,” she says, gesturing along her lower lip and the side of her chin.
According to the NHS, injury to sections of the trigeminal nerve can be a rare complication of wisdom tooth removal. It may cause pain, a tingling sensation and numbness in the tongue, lower lip, chin and gums.
The damage is usually temporary, lasting for a few weeks or months.
But some experts suggest that, for around one in 200 patients, the issue can be permanent.
Amanda’s dentist isn’t entirely sure why the Heart Radio host hasn’t recovered from her extraction yet.
“The numbness is on the side with the tooth that flipped out really easily,” says the presenter with a shrug. It’s bizarre but you get used to it” she adds matter o f factly.
The numbness is one of two “random health things” bugging Amanda, though she is less breezy about the second.
“I have TMJ,” she says, sighing. “I don’t even know what it stands for, but it’s something to do with your jaw and I’ve got it.
“Most people who have it grind their teeth, but I don’t. Instead I have a habit of doing a thing which means I unconsciously tense a muscle in my neck and it causes me headaches at least once a week. It’s why I’m touching my neck now,” she says.
Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders affect the chewing muscles and joints that connect your lower jaw to your skull.
“It may have started as a place to hold stress, but now it’s definitely just a habit,” says Amanda.
Despite the tense muscles, Amanda isn’t someone who struggles to relax.
“Mentally, I’ve always been in a pretty good, positive place,” she says. “I go running to clear my head. It’s when I think and get some time on my own, which is rare, and that’s when I check in.
“I’ll do four or five miles a few times a week while listening to show tunes and that works for me. I’m just not very good at sitting still.”
That’s certainly evident from the fact that Amanda was back on the Britain’s Got Talent judging panel three weeks after giving birth to daughter, Hollie, now nine.
It’s even more incredible when you learn that, dur
The girls will definitely see me with a glass of wine and fish and chips
Amanda on her food ethos
ing the delivery, her heart stopped beating for 40 seconds due to a haemorrhage that sent her into a coma and left her in intensive care.
“That’s just how I get on with life, I just keep going,” says Amanda, who also has a second daughter, Alexa, 15, with her husband Chris Hughes.
“It’s like falling off your bike – I wouldn’t sit in the lay-by and watch the wheels carry on spinning. I’d pick up my bike and get back on it and cycle off. I’d rather just move on and get on.”
Such drive has certainly helped when it comes to Amanda’s multichannel career. As well as releasing her debut album, Songs From My Heart, during lockdown and making new E4 mockumentary The Holden Girls: Mandy & Myrtle, Amanda has become a brand ambassador for Revive Collagen Enhanced Plus, a daily skincare supplement for the over-40s.
“I’ve been taking it since March and it is amazing,” she says of the marine collagen sachet, which also contains retinol, hydrolysed keratin and vitamins B6, B12, C and D.
“The other vitamins included in the sachet mean it’s just one shot and you’re done. The B vitamins are particularly good for me as I’ve been vegetarian since I was a teen.
“My hair has definitely got thicker since I started taking it – my eyelashes, my nails, my skin is plumper – it has made everything bloom.”
Despite turning 50 in February, age is clearly just a number to Amanda, having had two grandmothers who lived till they were 97.
“My nan used to say ‘don’t deny yourself anything’ and I’ve continued that with my girls.
“We don’t have diets in our house – I don’t cut out sugar or fat or anything like that. The girls will definitely see me with a glass of wine and have fish and chips on a Friday.
“I think that because of the last 18 months, when we’ve all been told what we can and cannot do, that we really shouldn’t tell ourselves what we can and cannot do. I think that’s the best way to clear your headspace and to live happily ever after.”