Miriam Margolyes has revealed all in a sit-down interview with Vogue magazine in which she admits she despises her “big t***” and “drooping belly”.
The 82-year-old Harry Potter actress from Oxford made the admission as she posed for a naked shoot for British Vogue’s annual Pride issue – using a selection of iced buns to cover her privates.
Miriam admitted: “I like my face. I think my face is kind and warm and open and smiley.
“But I hate my body. I hate big t*** (and) a drooping belly, little twisted legs. I’m not thrilled with that. But you just make the best of it. You have to. You do the best you can.”
Vogue, 2023 🧁 #MiriamMargolyes pic.twitter.com/S0HhFtxrKd
— Miriam Margolyes OBE (@MMargolyes) June 13, 2023
Miriam also revealed she is going into surgery to have a stent fitted in her heart, but insisted she is not “terrified”.
She added: “When you’re young, you never think about death. You just think about your next f*** basically. I think about death a lot.
“Oh, every day, for sure. Every morning when I get up I think, ‘Hmmm, another day,’ which maybe I wasn’t expecting.”
Openly gay Miriam also addressed how she came out to her parents, saying the admission “hurt” her mum and dad.
“I think gay people are very lucky, because we are not conventional, we are a group slightly apart. It gives us an edge. We’re good artists, we’re good musicians. And I like being gay. I wouldn’t want to be straight for anything.” - Miriam Margolyes, British Vogue 2023. pic.twitter.com/GQTkPxklv8
— Miriam Margolyes OBE (@MMargolyes) June 13, 2023
The actress, famed for playing Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter franchise, came out in 1966 when homosexuality was still illegal.
She said about always being proud of her sexuality: “I never had any shame about being gay or anything really. I knew it wasn’t criminal because it was me. I couldn’t be a criminal.”
Miriam – who is married to Australian historian Heather Sutherland, 80, – was last month rushed to hospital following a health scare, and posted a photo on Facebook of herself on a ward as she updated fans about her condition.
It turned out she had contracted a chest infection following a routine heart procedure to treat aortic stenosis – a narrowing of the aortic valve.
She told her followers: “I did survive and I am still in The Royal Brompton Hospital certainly till Sunday.
“I am growing energy but it’s still not quite me. I am putting this so you know how grateful I am for lovely messages.”
🏳️🌈 Miriam Margolyes taking over British Vogue during Pride Month is just what the world needs right now. pic.twitter.com/NixmI7KnQM
— Jason Reid (@JasonReidUK) June 13, 2023
The outspoken actress also touched on modern-day England.
“I just think England has become a s***-hole. And the government is at the heart of the s***. There’s been a moral slide in England into the deep pit of iniquity.”
Asked whether the situation in the country could improve in the foreseeable future, Margolyes made reference to the Tories’ hugely divisive anti-immigration policies.
“I don’t have a lot of hope at the moment,” she said. “I cannot believe that people are genuinely in approval of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda.
"Something’s happened to ordinary decent people that they can think that that is a legitimate solution.”
The July issue of British Vogue is available via digital download and on newsstands from Tuesday 20 June.
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