Patsy Kensit Reflects on Trauma and Self-Discovery

Pasty Kensit has admitted that her trauma isn't about 'having sons from two failed relationships' as she opened up on self-discovery.

The actress, 58, has two sons, James Kerr and , from her marriages to musicians Jim Kerr and , respectively.

In a new interview, Patsy, who stars on 's Pilgrimage, opened up about how the series made her come face-to-face with her trauma. 

The star, who has been married four times, told Country Living UK: 'I came into the pilgrimage with a lot of anger, which I had always attributed to failing in my marriages. 

'I have a noisy mind, which is man's worst enemy. 

'All that time outdoors taught me how to quieten it, which allowed me to come to terms with the fact that the trauma I've been carrying was actually from childhood. 

'My trauma isn't about having sons from two failed relationships; this is about my whole life.

'I can be quite hard on myself, but being able to recognise that helped me to not feel like a failure.'

Thrust into the spotlight at the age of four, when she appeared in a commercial for Birds Eye peas, Patsy has worked in the industry ever since but suffered a traumatic childhood. 

Patsy spent the best part of it worrying her mother, Margie, who was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was five years old, wouldn’t be there. So much so, she lost count of the times she went to the hospital to say goodbye.

She previously recalled: 'It was horrible. I had that constant fear of her dying from the age of five until she passed on when I was 22. From the age of seven or eight, I was on a quest to work and make money so I’d be able to pay to make her healthy. I’d think, “If I can make everything around us okay, it means she’ll be here".'

Meanwhile, Patsy's father Jimmy died from leukaemia when she was 17. He was an associate of the Kray twins, and spent her childhood in and out of prison. 

He was jailed twice, once when she was six for 18 months, then again at the age of 11 for five years. On both occasions he was jailed for long firm fraud - where a fraudster sets up a bogus business, says he will pay for goods on account then disappears after the goods are delivered without paying.

Patsy only learned this when taking part in an episode of BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? At the time she believed he was an antiques dealer.

She previously recalled: 'I lost my father when I was 17. He was a flawed man but he was my father and I loved him.

'‘I didn’t recognise it until about 15 years ago but I’d always want to be in a relationship with someone who goes away all the time. I’ve figured that out now and compartmentalised it in my head.

'Having said that, I’ve had great loves and out of that came my two boys.'

The BBC's latest edition of the travel documentary series sees her join a group of celebrities including Diversity star , 37, former Love Islander , 27, Cold Feet actress Hermione Norris, 59, and presenter Jayne Middlemiss, 55, as they embark on a five-day pilgrimage across North Yorkshire, County Durham and Northumberland.

Speaking about the unpredictability of the weather while filming the series, Patsy admitted the whole journey gave her a sense of peace.

She said: 'We would be walking under black skies, rain shooting down, and suddenly the clouds would shift, and there would be this brilliant sunshine with psychedelic colours. 

'If I was ever asked the one thing I'd like to do again, it would be this. These are troubled times, but that was a package full of love, of pleasure, of pain, of freezing and beautiful sunshine. 

'It was everything. A mixed bag, wonderful and extreme. I've learned so much from it. Money couldn't buy the sense of peace that journey brought me.'  

Patsy, who began her career at the age of four, first married in 1988, aged 22, to Big Audio Dynamite musician Dan Donovan, 63. The couple split in 1991.

A year later, she wed Simple Minds frontman Jim, 66, with whom she shares her eldest son James, 32, before divorcing in 1995.

Her third marriage to Oasis singer Liam, 53, saw her become one of the defining faces of the Britpop era. The couple married at Marylebone Town Hall in 1997 and welcomed their son Lennon, 26, before divorcing in 2000.

She later married DJ Jeremy Healy in 2009, but the relationship lasted just 10 months.

The former Holby City star is also said to have accepted a proposal from her property tycoon lover, Patric Cassidy, in 2022 after he got down on one knee during a fish supper, but ended things after it became 'too hard'.

She has also previously revealed she kept a romance with actor Terence Stamp secret for 35 years because she did not want to 'hurt' anyone.

She later said her relationship with the Superman actor – who was 30 years her senior – began in the early 1990s after they worked together on 1991 thriller Prince of Shadows, with the actress calling Stamp a 'total gentleman' as well as 'an amazing and generous lover.’

Pilgrimage: The Road To Holy Island airs on BBC Two on April 5 at 9pm.