Joanna Lumley jokes smoking up to 40 cigarettes has helped her stay fit at 77

07 August 2023 , 18:16

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Joanna Lumley jokes smoking up to 40 cigarettes has helped her stay fit at 77

It might not be dietary advice the Department of Health gets behind, but Dame Joanna Lumley believes cigarettes may have helped her stay so fit and healthy at 77.

“I am unbelievably fit,” she boasts. “Despite, or probably because of smoking. I am never ill. I never have these extraordinary emergency procedures.”

The actress plays a bigoted pensions who undergoes chemotherapy for ovarian cancer in short film My Week With Maisy, and Joanna says becoming familiar with undergoing treatments in a hospital was a “humbling” experience. “I have never had to endure things like this,” she continues, of the treatments her character endures.

Dame Joanna Lumley believes cigarettes may have helped her stay so fit and healthy at 77 (Getty Images)

Joanna has smoked for decades (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

“And so I felt very humble being introduced to cannulas and things like this and how long it would take and the bags and realising how movement is difficult... like you can't really drag or go off, you know? It is was just humbling and interesting.”

Joanna smokes between one and 40 cigarettes per day, and has proudly declared that she “loves” the habit and will never quit - in fact, during filming, she regularly snuck off for cheeky cigarette breaks, with director Mika Simmons finding her out in the streets of London’s Paddington, enjoying a smoke during rush hour.

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The pair spoke at a screening of the film in Notting Hill’s Electric Cinema, where Joanna discussed playing chain smoking fashionista Patsy Stone in Absolutely Fabulous, and said she reckons fans of the show know her character even better than she does.

“People come up to me and say lines that come from Patsy and I don’t remember anything,” she laughs.

Ashleigh Rainbird