TV Vanessa: I wanted to hit rude Madge
Climber’s amazing courage
Vanessa Feltz
VANESSA Feltz wanted to thump Madonna when she interviewed her.
TV and radio star Feltz, said she was so incensed that the pop icon kept her waiting for “seven hours” she had the “urge to hit her hard around the face”.
She met the Material Girl for Channel 4’s The Big Breakfast in 1996, when Madonna was at the height of her fame.
Feltz, 58, told The Observer magazine: “I wasn’t starstruck, but I [had] the urge to strike her.
“She turned up seven hours late and was rude, unbearably high-handed and disinterested.”
Feltz also revealed she loved sex and was nicknamed “Vanessa the Undresser” at school. “I’ve never tired of it, menopause or not,” she added. climber if I weren’t blind – if I didn’t have these challenges. It wouldn’t focus me.
“Doing that climb was a testament to the outlook I’ve always had – which is I’m not disabled, I’m blind and able.
“The feeling of accomplishment is incredible.”
Jesse, 34, of Loughborough, Leics, was born with genetic condition retinitis pigmentosa, giving him
20% central vision. It slowly deteriorated until he was almost blind.
While he is happily planning
With Molly at summit more climbs – in the US and on ice in Canada – his chief hope is to see his wife again.
In the film he admits: “The thing that hurts most is not being able to see Molly’s face.
“There’s a photo of her with a pair of sunglasses on, that’s my image of her.”
Jesse, part of the UK’S paraclimbing team, tries not to “obsess” about the idea
of one day regaining his sight. “I can’t base my life around something that might not happen,” he said.
But he hopes technology will make the dream a reality.
“They’re thinking about basically making people bionic, so you’d have a sensor like a camera and they’d wire that to your optic nerves.”
For now he is happy to keep risking it all at the end of a rope.
“There has to be the possibility of failure. Otherwise, it’s not a challenge, right?” he said.
“You feel a bit of stress, and, obviously, it’s really hard work.
“You’re trying to keep your pulse rate from going sky high.
“If you start panicking, you’ll spiral out of control and fall.” ■ Climbing Blind,
Wednesday, 9pm, BBC4.