Loose Women’s Brenda Edwards revealed that she was married for 17 years – and no one knew about it until her divorce!
The presenter, 54, told Coleen Nolan, Janet Street-Porter, and Christine Lampard said on Loose Women on Monday: ‘I was married for 27 years, it was only when I got divorced after 27 years that my friends – that had been friends for 17 years – found out that I was even married.’
She said she didn’t hide her marriage to Patrick Edwards, saying: ‘I had a ring on and everything, but they were just like, “What, you’re married?”‘
In response to her co-hosts’ visible shock, Brenda jokingly queried: ‘Why’s that so hard to believe?’
Coleen, 58, spoke up and asked: ‘Where did you keep him?’ To laughs from the other women and the audience.
Shock reveal: Loose Women ‘s Brenda Edwards revealed on Tuesday’s show that she was married for 17 years – and no one knew about it until her divorce!
Rare outing: Brenda with (L-R) Patrick Edwards, her former husband of 27 years, daughter Tanisha Artman, and son Jamal Edwards’ best friend Ed Sheeran
Brenda replied: ‘I’m not that person to put that out, there’s enough that we talk about, I want to keep some things for myself.
‘And that relationship I want to keep to myself, I just don’t want to parade that person.’
Brenda explained that she and Patrick had lived very separate lives and added that Patrick was not involved with showbuiness so they kept things low-key.
She said: ‘I don’t really go for people that are in the industry, because I’ve said, I want to talk about something different than the industry, so he wasn’t in the industry.
‘Obviously, in the musical theatre world, evening time is when you do all the socialising. He was in bed because he’s got to get up for work in the morning, so it kind of worked.’
The West End star has two children: Tanisha, 30, and Jamal, who sadly passed away in 2022 at the age of 31 from a cardiac arrest after a cocaine and drinking session.
Brenda’s children are not from her marriage but from a previous relationship.
After her relationship with Tanisha and Jamal’s father ended and before her relationship with Patrick began, Brenda encountered an abusive partner who left her feeling ‘totally scared’.
She knew she had to leave her violent and erratic partner when he strangled her.
Pardon? Coleen Nolan, 58, (second from left), spoke up and asked: ‘Where did you keep him?’ To laughs from the other women and the audience
Brenda told Janet Street Porter: ‘I’m not that person to put that out, there’s enough that we talk about, I want to keep some things for myself’
Brenda said back in 2020 that she was punched in the face and threatened with a knife, two-years after she had escaped her abusive boyfriend.
She said: ‘I met this guy who was charming and gorgeous and said all the right things, “You look lovely, I love what you have on”,’ told Brenda.
‘Then we started seeing each other and it was “Why are you wearing that? You look awful, that doesn’t suit you, take it off. Then we were having a conversation and he punched the wall in my flat. He apologised and I let him off, it’s like “Maybe I did something”.
‘Then the second time, he punched the door and I had to tell people the ironing board had fell, I was papering up cracks to cover it.’
As his behaviour became increasingly volatile, Brenda would begin to doubt herself more and more, asking what she’d done to deserve it – but eventually realised she had to escape after he violently attacked her over some food shopping.
She told: ‘I found myself asking “What have I done to deserve this?” and I literally found myself talking to myself saying “What are you doing Brenda” and that is a sign you’re not yourself.
‘There was an incident where I brought some apple pies and one of them was missing and he came home and freaked out and started strangling me. It was the strangling that made me say, “I have to get out of this”.’
But Brenda hadn’t told her family and friends about the abuse, and feared her situation could worsen if she involved others.
Family: Brenda’s children, Jamal, who sadly died in aged 31 in 2022 and Tanisha are not from her marriage but from a previous relationship
‘I hadn’t spoken to my family,’ she said. ‘And I thought if I spoke to my family they’d get involved and this could turn really ugly and I’ll blame myself.
‘I had both of the kids at this point, I phoned my best friend, I said what was going on and there was kind of, “You haven’t said this before so it can’t have been that bad”, but it was the case of getting the strength to do that.’
Brenda and her best friend planned her escape, packing a bag for her and her two children while her friend waited at the flat to take her to safety.
‘He turned up, I heard the keys in the door and felt the goose pimples,’ said Brenda. ‘There was bit of a tussle between me and my friend and him and we got out.’
Talking about relationships, Brenda told the panel later in the show that she would ‘instigate a sleep divorce’ before ‘an intimate relationship’, as the group discussed partners sleeping in separate beds.
She said: ‘I just put my cards from the table and don’t see anything wrong with that, it’s important for me to have some sleep and for me for my partner to have some sleep.’
