Amanda Holden reveals she has lost two babies and almost diAmanda Holden says 10 years on Britain’s Got Talent have toughened her up so much that even Simon Cowell admits she’s “made of steel”.
It’s that she’s had to cope with losing two babies and almost dying after giving birth, while battling the public’s perception of her a “bit of a minx” for cheating on first husband, popular comedian Les Dennis.
And dealing with those traumas has helped her forge a lifelong friendship with Cowell, who’s had his share of heartbreak during the talent contest’s long run, including the death of his mother Julie last year.ed giving birth
Amanda reveals: “We’ve gone from having a massive laugh about things, to both going through very personal things that have been horrendous.
“But we’ve supported each other in that, and come out the other end.”
Amanda – who first appeared on TV in a 1991 episode of Blind Date – landed her big break in 2007.
She says: “At the time I started on Britain’s Got Talent I’d only just had my daughter Lexi. Leaving my baby behind and working was really weird.
“It was a whole new life at home and then a whole new massive juggernaut of a show. It was life-changing for me as well as for the contestants.”
The talent series, which regularly pulls in over 10million viewers on Saturday nights, quickly went from strength to strength with Amanda and Cowell remaining as judges, while others came and went.
But despite her ever-present smile on camera, the loss of two babies left her grief stricken.
In 2010, the actress – who yearned for a bigger family with husband Chris Hughes – miscarried at 16 weeks after discovering she was expecting a little boy.
It was just a fortnight before BGT’s live finals but she carried on, not even telling fellow judges Simon Cowell and Piers Morgan what had happened.
She has previously told how she turned to alcohol to deal with her loss. In her autobiography she admitted: “I was drinking. A lot. I was almost 40. I didn’t want Lexi to be an only child.”
Amanda, now 45, was thrilled when she fell pregnant again. But just weeks before her due date she was told her baby had died and she would have to deliver a stillborn boy.
She wrote: “I rubbed noses with him, smelled his face and his neck and just cried and cried.”
After that, Amanda defied medical advice to wait and got pregnant again as soon as possible.
She gave birth to daughter Hollie Rose in January 2012.
But that nearly cost the star her life after the placenta attached itself to her bladder and an artery was snagged as it was lifted out.
She flat-lined for 40 seconds before being revived, went into a coma and needed 26 pints of blood. She spent three days in intensive care.
So after bouncing back from all that, Amanda feels more than able to cope with professional criticism, just like her mentor Cowell.
She says: “I think we both thrive if we are on the back foot. If anyone is having a go at us, we fight back. I am tougher.
“So we are very similar in that way. He said to me once I was made of steel – and I said titanium!”
But she has also seen the tycoon’s softer side, after watching him with Eric, his two-year-old son with girlfriend Lauren Silverman.
“Seeing him finally meet someone who has turned him into a family man and seeing him with his child, it’s been really wonderful,” she says.
“Success in life means nothing if you haven’t got someone to go home to. We have both got that and we also have each other because I adore him.”
And Amanda – whose golden buzzer act, 13-year-old singer Beau Dermott, is favourite to win this year – is all the more grateful because she knows she hasn’t always had the public on her side.
In 2000, while married to TV comic Les, she had an affair with actor Neil Morrissey.
She has since told how her marriage to Les was on the rocks at the time and three years later they divorced.
But she admits: “Because of everything in my personal life – being married and having an affair – I was seen as a bit of a minx or a girl who would steal your husband, which couldn’t be further from the truth.
"I am a girl’s girl and always have been, so that really upset me.
“I love coming on BGT and showing who I am, which is someone who makes loads of mistakes, laughs all the time, cries an awful lot and can take a joke really well.
“Now people just think I’m not a threat to anyone. Simon always says to me, ‘I’ve made you more popular’. I’m like, ‘Yeah, you’re probably right’.”
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