Debbie was diagnosed with vascular dementia in early 2025.
She sought medical advice after noticing some worrying symptoms. Debbie was becoming forgetful, misplacing her purse, forgetting appointments and making mistakes at work.
Added to this she was experiencing mood swings and also suffered blackouts, one of which ended in a fall.
The doctor explained the blackout could have been a TIA or mini-stroke and sent her for some more tests, including to a memory clinic where she would be assessed.
Actress Sue Devaney will play the role of Debbie until at least 2027, which means the ITV soap will continue showing the audience how dementia impacts the character’s life for quite a few more months.
Carl moved Debbie from the passenger side and behind the wheel, making her think that she caused the crash. When the truth dawned on Debbie, she proceeded to let the police believe she was responsible in an attempt to protect her son.
Debbie has been inside ever since. Because of her dementia diagnosis, she’s also had inmate and former Weatherfield resident Lou Michaelis (Farrel Hegarty) keeping an eye on her.
In this new video, Debbie arrives in the visiting room ready to see Kevin and Jack Webster (Kyran Bowes).
Ronnie and Kevin now know the truth about Debbie being Carl’s mum (Picture: ITV)
Debbie’s praying the appeal will go her way (Picture: ITV)
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As she chats about her attempt at knitting Carl a jumper, Kevin notes that Debbie could soon be back at home presenting Carl with her knitted creation, should the appeal go her way.
While speaking about the other skills she’s learnt while inside, Debbie attempts to open a carton of drink. She ends up getting confused, failing to realise she can’t access the juice without using the straw.
Jack helps, but Kevin cannot help but watch with sadness in his eyes, aware that this is another sign Debbie’s health is slowly declining.
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A new season has sprung, and that’s usually a signal for us to go around our homes and embark on the big Spring clean.
That means throwing away the appliance on the kitchen side that hasn’t worked for the past three months, and finally binning the vacuum that’s kept hiding in the cupboard.
But don’t stress, it’s out with the old, and in with the new, as perfectly timed with the big clear-outs is the beginning of the annual Easter sales. Kicking things off with huge savings across thousands of products is none other than Curry’s. Offering up to 40 per cent across items such as home appliances like washing machines, freezers and printers, as well as tech essentials including headphones, laptops and tv’s, you’ll be spoiled for choice.
Another brilliant incentive that Curry’s offers to ensure you’re getting the best price for whatever you’re treating yourself to is their Price Promise. This means that you won’t find lower prices anywhere else on the market. So, let’s not waste any more precious shopping time and jump straight into some of the best deals to bag right now.
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If your laptop is making a tired, groaning sound, and the battery goes after 30 minutes of usage, it might be time for an upgrade. The ASUS Vivobook S16 is an excellent option as it has a sharp OLED display, meaning your favourite Netflix binges just got even better. Its interior tech assures speedy performance for work or play, and its sleek design makes it lightweight to carry around.
Want to go bigger and better with your home entertainment? This 65-inch Hisense QLED screen is basically a home cinema. Expect crisp 4K detail and built-in smart streaming apps so you can jump straight into your favourite shows. For under £600, it’s a brilliant upgrade to movie nights.
Whether you want something for streaming on the sofa, browsing on the go, or keeping the kids entertained, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab A11+ is a solid all-rounder. The 11-inch display is roomy enough for films and games, while the slim design means it slips easily into a bag.
SHARK Glossi HT302UKTL 2-in-1 Hot Tool and Air Glosser
Bring the expertise of the salon into your home with Shark’s Glossi hair tool. This clever 2-in-1 tool dries and smooths hair at the same time, helping you achieve that sleek, glossy finish without juggling multiple gadgets.
When it comes to vacuums, one brand stands out against the rest, and that’s Dyson. The V8 cordless option makes picking up crumbs, tackling stubborn pet hair and random strands of fluff less of a chore, and more satisfying.
NESPRESSO by De'Longhi Vertuo Next ENV120.WAE Pod Coffee Machine with Aeroccino Milk Frother
Want coffee shop vibes without having to leave the house? The Nespresso Veruo machine will do just the trick. Sit back and relax as the home barista brews and whips up an espresso or lungo, perfect for full-size mugs at the touch of a button. It comes with a trusty sidekick, the Aeroccino milk frother that will take your brews from zero to 100, crafting delicious cappuccinos and lattes.
BOSE QuietComfort SC Wireless Bluetooth Noise-Cancelling Headphones
Bose is known for their excellent noise-cancelling headphones, which makes this style an offer not to miss. Expect top or the art noise cancelling, a comfortable fit and long battery life so you don’t need to worry about being without music or your favourite podcast. Brilliant for commuters, travelling, working out, or escaping the world for a little while.
Tuchel liked what he saw from the Everton star (Picture: Getty)
Thomas Tuchel has described Everton star James Garner as England’s ‘mini Valverde’ following his international debut against Uruguay.
The England boss made wholesale changes to his side on Friday night with Declan Rice and Elliot Anderson, the pair expected to start in midfield at this summer’s World Cup, given the night off.
It opened up opportunities for the likes of Garner and James Trafford who made their first appearances for their country, with the Everton man battling Fede Valverde and Manuel Ugarte in midfield alongside Jordan Henderson.
Garner came through Manchester United’s academy, making his debut at 17 in 2019. He made just six more appearances for the club, joining Everton for £10million where he has grown into a first-team star.
In many ways, Garner is the sort of player United will be on the lookout this summer as they seek to rebuild in midfield.
The 25-year-old will hope to be part of Tuchel’s squad in the USA during that time after impressing on his international bow.
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Garner impressed on his international debut (Picture: Getty)
‘I’m very happy [with Garner] — he’s our mini Valverde,’ Tuchel said.
‘He’s getting there, and he played very, very good. I was quite sure that he will play good because he has this natural confidence and he’s just very physical. He won a lot of balls.’
The England boss also pointed out where Garner can improve was overall very impressed with what he saw.
Valverde one of the best midfielders in the world (Picture: Getty)
‘I think there are some situations where he can be a little bit more open in the body position and drive maybe a little bit more through midfield with a little bit more confidence,” he said.
‘I think in the last 10 minutes of the first half, he was involved in some ball losses that cost us a bit of confidence.
‘But overall I was very impressed with the way he trained and the way he behaved. The way he played was good.’
This is what really gets the girlies going (Picture: Getty)
‘I don’t know who needs to hear this, but girls don’t want dick pics,’ says podcast host Thea Rose. ‘They want cum shot videos with the sound turned on’.
During an episode of the Seggs Talk Radio Podcast, which discusses ‘all things sex’, Thea made the rather bold claim that women are looking for a man who can put on a show.
Ditch the awkward close-up shot of genitalia, often featuring seedy-looking bathroom lighting, and replace it with a live action clip of the exact point of orgasm.
Surprising? Maybe. But judging by the flood of ‘preach!’, ‘yes!’, and ‘100%’ in the comments, she might be onto something.
It ought to go without saying at this point that we’re talking about content that has been asked for. Unsolicited sexually explicit content of any kind is a no-go.
But when it’s been invited, it turns out there’s a lot of women (Thea’s video has been viewed over 500,000 times) who are after some X-rated footage. So, what’s all the fuss about?
For those who are blissfully unaware, a ‘cum shot’ video is a visual depiction of ejaculation.
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Originating in porn, these types of videos can feature someone ejaculating by themselves, onto a towel or pillow.
Or, in some cases, it can also depict someone ejaculating onto another person’s body part, such as on the genitals, buttocks, chest or tongue.
‘Cum shot’ videos are typically filmed from a first-person point of view.
Why do women prefer ‘cum shot’ videos?
‘A still image can feel static, almost impersonal to some,’ sexologist and sex educator Gigi Engle tells Metro. ‘It can feel like a disconnected body part rather than a whole experience’.
A video, on the other hand, tells more of a sexy story. ‘A video captures the movement, anticipation, and intention of the act,’ which is often more aligned with how many women experience arousal: as something contextual,’ adds Gigi.
Sexting is something that should be enjoyed by both men and women(Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
And, while images can feel quite passive, a video feels more participatory. Both partners feel as though they’re actively involved in each other’s experience.
She explains: ‘A video actually helps shift the dynamic from “look at this” to “this is happening for you”.
‘This can feel more intimate and engaging. In short: it makes the whole thing feel more personalised’.
Why is it so important to have the ‘sound on’?
Pointing out that women want videos with ‘the sound turned on’ isn’t an accident.
Audio erotica has become increasingly popular, with platforms like Quinn, Dipsea, and LELO all offering a plethora of sexy stories to indulge in.
And, in Superdrug’s Great British Sex Report 2026, it was revealed that erotic voice notes are on the rise. Though only 18% surveyed sent or listened to them in the past year, 14% want to explore them more in 2026.
Gigi explains: ‘Hearing breath, tone, or vocal reactions activates a different part of the brain than simply seeing an image. It’s more immersive and embodied.
‘For many women, arousal is deeply tied to imagination and context, and audio helps fill in those psychological gaps’.
Sound plays a massive role in female arousal (Picture: Getty Images)
Do women enjoy sexting as much as men?
Gigi believes that the ‘cum shot’ claim ‘definitely challenges the oversimplified idea that desire is strictly gendered’.
Sexting plays a role in the sex life of both men and women. A 2022 study revealed that among Brits aged 18-59, not only does this form of intimacy initiate sex, it also helps to reinforce feelings of closeness and connection after sex.
Gigi concludes: ‘Women are often just as responsive to visual stimuli as men, but they often prefer visuals within context’.
The presenter, 40, posted how ‘shooketh’ she was when Brooklyn’s statement dropped earlier this year and has now called out Sir David’s ‘sh**y’ behaviour.
Feud rumours had been rumbling for well over a year, but the Beckhams remained tight-lipped until that lengthy statement.
Brooklyn, 27, has stated he wants nothing to do with his parents, however, they did post about him on his birthday in a move that didn’t impress Vogue.
Speaking on the latest episode of Vogue & Amber, she said: ‘When David Beckham posted about Brooklyn Beckham after he said not to post about him, I thought that was a bit sh***y of them.
The Beckhams have been locked in a feud for months (Picture: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)
She was ‘shooketh’ when Brooklyn’s original statement was dropped (Picture: @voguewilliams)
‘Because remember he went so mad and said that he didn’t want them to post about him online.’
While the mum-of-three disagreed with the former footballer, she added that Brooklyn was also being ‘mean’.
She continued: ‘Did you see what [Brooklyn] did on Mother’s Day? He posted a picture with his mother-in-law and said, “best mother-in-law in the world.”
‘What a stab in the boob. Honestly, imagine! I just think that is so mean.’
The aspiring chef shared Nicola’s posts about her mum, Claudia Heffner, but did not post anything about his mum, Victoria, on Mother’s Day.
He posed with his wife and Claudia next to balloons which read ‘mom’, even though Americans usually celebrate Mother’s Day in May.
‘Happy birthday to the best mother in law x Love you so much and hope u had the most amazing day <3,’ Brooklyn penned.
Brooklyn and Nicola posted on Mother’s Day for her mum Claudia (Picture: Brooklyn Beckham)
While Brooklyn gave the day a miss, Sir David posted a sweet tribute to his wife of 27 years, with whom he also shares children Romeo, 22, Cruz, 21, and Harper, 14.
Posting an old black-and-white snap while Victoria was pregnant with one of their kids, he wrote: ‘Happy Mother’s Day to the most amazing mummy…you are an inspiration in all the ways a mum should be to our 4 amazing children.
‘We love you so much and I’m so thankful for the family we have created 🩷 Have a special Mother’s Day because if there’s one person that deserves it it’s you 🩷 I love you 🩷.’
Amber questioned whether we would ever really know what happened, to which Vogue said we could always ‘speculate’ due to the Beckhams being so high profile.
The media personality asked: ‘How could you do that to your kid? Do you know what, it does happen a lot where people fall out with family.
Brooklyn has asked for his parents to stop contacting him (Picture: Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP)
The family are said to be ‘heartbroken’ about the divide (Picture: Samir Hussein/WireImage)
‘I know I have a friend who hasn’t spoken to his mother in like six years or something. And I do say would you not be worried something might happen to her and you won’t have made up with her and all that kind of stuff.
‘I just think it’s a really worrying thing. I think if you are able to possibly let bygones be bygones.’
Amber replied: ‘I hear what you’re saying but you have to understand that it’s all fine and well to say bygones be bygones, but some people are like “no, my life is better without that person.”‘
Vogue admitted they were ‘very lucky’ not to truly understand why you would cut off a family member.
‘I do understand there are situations where you just can’t actually do that. But I just think it is always so sad,’ she concluded.
Vogue is married to Spencer Matthews, sharing three children together: Theodore, eight, daughter Gigi, six, and son Otto, four.
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Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is on Arsenal’s summer shortlist (Allstar via Getty)
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia would consider a move to Arsenal with the Premier League leaders considering a bid to sign the winger from Paris Saint-Germain, according to reports.
The Georgia international has been in excellent form this season with 12 goals and seven assists as PSG aim to retain their Ligue 1 and Champions League titles.
According to The Independent, Arsenal are ‘investigating’ a deal for Kvaratskhelia as they view the winger as someone who can add ‘individual creativity’ to their attack.
The report adds that Kvaratskhelia’s entourage are ‘open to the idea’ of a move to Arsenal and are willing to consider their options this summer.
PSG, however, are said to regard Kvaratskhelia, who has three years remaining on his contract, as a ‘near-unsellable’ player.
PSG have no intention of selling Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (AFP via Getty)
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Speaking earlier this month, Kvaratskhelia made it clear that he remains happy at PSG.
‘For me, Paris is truly extraordinary,’ Kvaratskhelia told Le Parisien.
‘You have everything here, and above all, this is the city of love. When PSG contacted me, I thought my wife was the happiest person in the world.
‘Before PSG contacted me, she always said, ‘Imagine if one day we play for PSG, it would be amazing to stay there.’
‘In my mind, I think it’s very difficult to go there when there are great players like [Lionel] Messi, Neymar and [Kylian] Mbappe. I love everything about Paris. The more I think about it, the more I appreciate how respectful the people are there.’
Christopher Trybus leaving Winchester Crown Court, where he is on trial for manslaughter (Picture: Solent News)
A woman allegedly driven to suicide by her husband ‘dreamed up’ a series of ‘horrific’ false allegations of domestic abuse as a way to escape from her boring and lonely life, a court has heard.
Christopher Trybus, 43, is on trial accused of manslaughter over the death of Tarryn Baird, who was just 34 when she ended her own life at their Swindon home in November 2017.
Jurors at Winchester Crown Court have heard that Trybus’s ‘tsunami’ of abuse – including rapes, frequent beatings and controlling and coercive behaviour – left Tarryn feeling her only way out was suicide.
But giving evidence in his defence today, Trybus told them he was ‘devastated’ by her death and could not fathom her making such claims against him.
His barrister Katy Thorne KC drew their attention to cases featuring false or malicious allegations featuring Leon Brittan, Ted Heath and the family of Madeleine McCann.
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She said: ‘People do do it. It is difficult to understand.’
When asked by Ms Thorne if he had ever been ‘viciously violent’ towards her, raped her or attempted to control her, Trybus said: ‘No, absolutely not.’
When asked if he loved her, he replied: ‘Yes, very much.’
Describing how he felt about Tarryn’s death, he said: ‘At the time, still, extremely sad, devastated, you can’t even describe it, it’s nothing you can prepare for.
‘It’s absolutely heartbreaking and devastating, the worse thing I have ever had to deal with in my life by far.’
He said of the allegations he now faces: ‘It’s such a conflict for me, you know, I loved her so much and we had a happy marriage, I would never dream she would say these things.
‘It’s so strange for me that she is saying these things and at the same time it’s landed me in all of this, I can’t say I am angry, it’s such a mix, I feel bad she was in such a place that she was saying these things, what was going through her mind, that she was saying this.
‘Then there is a little bit, I do not want to go as far as anger, it’s not anger, it’s a mix of feelings, I struggle to even put it into words.’
Tarryn Baird was just 34 when she ended her own life in November 2017 (Picture: KnowMore/BNPS)
Before he stepped into the witness box, Ms Thorne gave another brief speech to the jury setting out the defence case.
She said: ‘Can you imagine being him?
‘The wife he will tell you he loved dearly and who he knew had been struggling with issues with her mental health for months and months one day takes her life by hanging.
‘Absolutely brutal. Imagine how that feels.’
Ms Thorne suggested they would feel ‘unbelievable grief’ at the loss, ‘confusion’ about why they had taken their own life, ‘guilt’ about not being able to save them, and ‘deep sadness’ about what must have been going through their head in the months before
But she added: ‘And then you find out that she has been saying all sorts of horrific things about you, what would you feel then?
‘How would you compute that? Is it anger, is it confusion, sadness that she was so troubled that she was doing this?
‘You will see when Christopher Trybus gives evidence that he feels all of these things.’
She told jurors that Trybus and Tarryn were a ‘loving couple living a very nice life’ – but ‘ultimately you may think quite a boring life, mundane life’, adding: ‘Perhaps that was the problem.’
Ms Thorne suggested Tarryn was ‘deeply troubled’ and had struggled with suicidal thoughts since before she came to the UK 10 years earlier from South Africa.
She added that when left alone while Trybus travelled abroad for work, ‘you may form the view that that’s when she goes down the hole, spiralling down, you may feel dreaming up these horrible, but fantastic we say, allegations’.
Tarryn, Ms Thorne said, became embroiled in a ‘warped game’ with health professionals, complaining of physical and sexual assaults ‘as a form of attention-seeking’.
The ‘one bit of spice in their relationship’, the barrister said, was their sex life.
‘Who knows why some people like to do this sort of stuff – this kinky stuff – in the bedroom?’ she said.
‘It has become very mainstream, there was even a movie about it, the 50 Shades and a book and it’s not always men who just want to do this stuff, it’s also women.
‘You may feel that women like to be dominated, tied up and spanked.
‘I am sorry we have to go there, it’s awkward for everyone, particularly Christopher Trybus who has to tell you all about his sex life with his deceased wife.’
Christopher Trybus has started giving evidence in his trial at Winchester Crown Court (Picture: PA)
Giving evidence, Trybus said their sex life could be ‘playful’.
He told the court that Ms Baird got ideas for the bedroom from 50 Shades of Grey.
The software consultant told jurors Tarryn liked it when he tied her hands up in the bedroom, adding: ‘She had watched 50 Shades [of Grey] movie and got some ideas there I think.’
He said that they bought a kit from Amazon in 2015/16 which included cuffs, rope, neck collar with leash, ball gag, a whip and blindfold.
Trybus said: ‘It’s cringingly embarrassing to talk about it.’
He said: ‘I think we used most things, we didn’t use the ball gag, it didn’t interest her, the cuff things, the collar we used, the blindfold I don’t remember, I remember the rope not being sexy at all.’
Trybus said the neck collar caused an injury to Tarryn but said she did not complain when it happened.
He said he didn’t mean it and apologised and that she replied: ‘Do not worry about it.’
Ms Thorne told jurors an audio recording found on Tarryn’s phone after her death, which prosecutors allege captured her being sexually assaulted, would be played several more times while Trybus gives evidence.
She likened it to an ‘optical illusion’, suggesting that while Tarryn’s cries could be taken as expressions of pain from a deliberate assault, there was more than one interpretation.
The barrister added: ‘She knew she was recording
‘You may want to ask yourselves was this a bit of a performance that she’s doing there for the recording?’
Ms Thorn said: ‘You will appreciate that in relation to some of the injuries the conclusion we ask you to draw is she was deliberately hurting herself in order to make false allegations
‘Is this another example of her fabricating evidence?’
The barrister drew the jury’s attention to ‘what you don’t hear’ on the recording.
She said Trybus is not ‘abusive, horrible or nasty’ in the recording, while Tarryn never asks him to ‘please stop’ or tells him, ‘you’re hurting me’.
‘If this was her in pain, why does she not say anything?’ she added.
Trybus, who is a software consultant, denies manslaughter, controlling and coercive behaviour and two charges of rape.
The background might not be quite as blurry after today’s announcement (Picture: HS2)
Plans to make HS2 the fastest regular passenger rail service on the planet could be scrapped to save time and costs on the massively overrunning project.
Cutting the top speed of the trains by around 40km per hour could save billions of pounds with a ‘negligible impact on journey times’, the Department for Transport (DfT) said.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has provided two options for speed reductions on the route, which will connect London with Birmingham.
One would bring the top speed down from 360km/h to 320km/h, roughly the top speed of Japan’s famous Shinkansen bullet trains.
The other would reduce it further to 300km/h, which would make HS2 no faster than the existing HS1 – better known as the Channel Tunnel route.
Either choice would mean it forfeits the crown of quickest railway on Earth, with both China and Indonesia boasting passenger trains that can reach 350km/h.
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Alexander said the government is ‘determined to deliver HS2 as effectively and efficiently as possible’.
She added: ‘In doing so, I will look at every opportunity to claw back construction time, save taxpayers money and ensure the project delivers for the country.’
One of the giant tunnelling machines being used to bore beneath London (Picture: Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire)
According to the DfT, the fact that no other railway in the world is currently engineered for such a rapid top speed would mean HS2 trains could only be tested once the tracks were built – further delaying the project.
A report on the impact of reducing the speed of the train is due to be delivered to Alexander before the start of Parliament’s summer recess on July 16.
In an alternative reality where all original deadlines were met, the first passengers would be start riding high-speed between London and cities in the north of England later this year.
Of course, that isn’t happening. Rishi Sunak announced he was scrapping the northern and eastern legs of the project in October 2023.
The Tory PM’s decision came after years of ballooning costs and unmet targets. In 2012, it was estimated the cost of the first phase would be £20.5 billion – but by January 2024, the estimate was £49bn to £56.6bn (all in 2019 prices).
A piece of the Greatworth Green Tunnel is put into place near Banbury last September (Photo by Ryan Jenkinson/Getty Images)
In December 2024, Labour appointed former Crossrail boss Mark Wild to become the new CEO of HS2 Ltd, the company launched by the last Labour government in 2009 to head up the project.
Alexander said Wild had been tasked with a ‘reset’ which would ‘bring an end to constant cost increases and delays, and deliver the remainder of the programme safely and at the lowest reasonable cost’.
In her latest update, the Transport Secretary said the new CEO’s work had shown HS2 Ltd ‘did not have an accurate assessment of how much work had been delivered, or of how much was left to do’.
‘It is now clear that previous plans significantly underestimated the work required,’ she added.
No new target date for the completion of the work was provided.
It was a role that propelled Jessica into the stratosphere, after she previously notched up appearances in episodes of Inside No.9, Doctor Who, Law and Order: UK, and the 2014 film Pride.
She can soon be seen in the fantasy film and Enid Blyton adaptation, The Magic Faraway Tree, where she plays Dame Washalot.
In a new interview, Jessica has opened up about her career path, sharing personal insight into her rise to fame.
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Jessica played real-life stalker Martha in the hit Netflix show (Picture: Netflix)
In recent years, she’s come to a realisation about her sexuality (Picture: Shutterstock)
Speaking on how the personal revelation came to be, Jessica told The Times that it was a chance conversation with another lesbian that sparked her lightbulb moment.
‘I think it’s because I’ve never been in a relationship before. With anyone,’ she said when pressed on how she’d not known beforehand.
Describing acting as ‘my passion and my love,’ she continued: ‘The characters I got to play, I felt like I maybe lived vicariously through a lot of them.
‘I felt very sexual, and I felt very connected to myself, so I was so happy in so many ways. It didn’t feel like I was lonely. I lived with my best mate. I felt fulfilled. So I didn’t feel like I was lacking anything.’
When prompted, she added: ‘Yeah, apart from sex.’
Jessica previously appeared in the Mitchell & Webb sitcom Back (Picture: Channel 4)
Jessica also spoke of her sexual awakening after the release of Baby Reindeer in 2024.
Joining the Reign with Josh Smith podcast, Jessica said: ‘That was a mega, mega thing for me. I’m surrounded by gays; all my friends are gay, and so it wasn’t that I was repressing anything.
‘It was just that I didn’t think I could be, and I still can’t articulate it in the best way.’
Describing herself as a ‘big old gay,’ she explained that because she was a ‘bigger woman,’ she’d felt a ‘little bit alien’ and like she was ‘tagging along’.
Then the realisation came that, ‘no, it’s not that.’
Going on to speak about her coming out experience, she said: ‘It’s actually really emotional. And some of my straight friends have actually said they envy people being able to come out because it feels like a celebration of who you are.
Jessica starred opposite Richard Gadd (Picture: Netflix)
‘And I think we’re coming into a time where we won’t ever need to really come out again. But when you do, it is so exposing. But it’s also really lovely going, “This is my soul”.’
She told Jessica Knappett on her Perfect Day podcast: ‘Richard has got incredible meetings out of this and everyone’s said to me, “What have you got?”‘
The offers that did come in then included a show about sharks – which we now know to be Shark! Celebrity Infested Waters – and an Australian production of Peter Pan, where she’d have played Smee.
She joked that the offers were ‘flooding in’ at the time.
However, with a project under Cate Blanchett’s production company in the works, she wasn’t ready to resign herself to reality TV or stage panto just yet.
Jessica plays Madam Washalot in the forthcoming adaptation (Picture: Entertainment Film)
And, with her role in The Magic Faraway Tree soon to hit UK cinemas, Jessica has also lent her voice to audiobook adaptation Death at the White Hart, in which she plays every character.
Following the series’ release, Harvey was found and interviewed by Piers Morgan, where she vowed to challenge Richard in the courts, insisting that many of the series’ events never happened.
However, a number of other celebrities subsequently came forward with their own experiences of the so-called ‘Real Martha’ – including Janey Godley, George Galloway, Laura Wray, and current UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
The ‘real Martha’ was interviewed by Piers Morgan after the show’s release (Picture: TalkTV/Pixel8000)
Harvey previously asserted that the series had falsely implied she had sexually assaulted Gadd, and that she was imprisoned for stalking him.
Netflix has defended the lawsuit and Gadd’s ‘right to tell his story’, claiming that the alleged defamtory statements are ‘substantially true.’
On whether she’s worried about being typecast as Martha, Jessica told Harper’s Bazaar: ‘I think maybe if I’d been Martha about 10 years ago, I would be worried about being pigeonholed.
‘But the parts I’m seeing coming in are very different to Baby Reindeer. Though really, I don’t mind always being associated with Martha. I’m so proud to have been part of that show.’
The Magic Faraway Tree is out in UK cinemas from March 27.
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