Age matters

Amanda has made it no secret that she worries getting older will mean less TV work, so it’s no wonder she feels down after getting replaced by 29-year-old Rochelle at the last minute.

It’s widely known that women above a certain age struggle to secure TV roles, as figures show that most over-50 presenters are male.

Speaking about launching her own range of furniture and home accessories on shopping channel QVC, Amanda herself admitted, ‘When my face falls off and all the telly work dries up, this is where I want to be.’

The actress clearly fears that she’s replaceable when it comes to her TV career, especially when you consider how soon she returned to work after the traumatic birth of her youngest daughter, Hollie, in 2012, when she died for 40 seconds after an artery burst. But 10 days later, she returned to Britain’s Got Talent and admitted, ‘No-one’s getting my seat. I always say to Simon Cowell, “No-one else would come out of a coma, come back and sit next to you.”’

She added, ‘I call it survival. You put on your lip gloss, you put on your eyelashes, and you go out.’

And she won’t even let her boss see her without slap on, as she’s confessed, ‘I hate Simon seeing me without my make-up – he’s got this saying, “Don’t kill the magic.”’

‘No-one’s getting my seat… I call it survival’