Amanda Holden has praised the NHS for saving her life, after she went into a coma following the “traumatic” birth of her daughter Hollie in 2012.
The Britain’s Got Talent judge has released her debut single, a version of Somewhere Over The Rainbow, with money raised by the track going to NHS Charities Together.
Holden, 49, recorded her version of the song, famously sung by Judy Garland in the 1939 film The Wizard Of Oz, in 2019 and it was due to be released as part of an album this year.
Appearing on Good Morning Britain, she said: “I feel like I have used (the NHS) more than most people. I have had to rely on them.
“We have always known the NHS is there and we all do take it for granted.
“I think it is wonderful how we have shone a light on them and we are really appreciating everything and seeing all the work they do.
“It has been well documented that Chris and I had a baby boy who was born sleeping at an NHS hospital, and then the year after he was born I delivered Hollie, and then went into a coma, so that was pretty traumatic, and then three years ago my sister had a car accident that she has fully recovered from now.
“But all those incidents were massively trying and the NHS were there to support us all the way through.”
In 2011, at seven months pregnant with son Theo, a scan revealed his heart had stopped.
Holden underwent a Caesarean at West Middlesex University Hospital, where she had trained as a midwife for an ITV documentary called Out Of My Depth in 2009.
Her experience prompted her to set up Theo’s Hope, a fund providing bereavement counsellors in maternity units around the UK.
The TV star also addressed the glamorous videos she has been posting from lockdown, including of her taking out the rubbish bins in a ballgown.
She told co-host Susanna Reid: “We have got standards.
“It’s funny – actually Susanna – because I am on my school mummy WhatsApp group and one of the mums said: ‘This is fantastic. I am going to use (lockdown) as an excuse not to wear a bra’.
“And I was like: ‘Now hang on. Make your bed and wear a bra. There are rules in my house’.
“Well you know, I’m a little bit nuts, Susanna.
“I was just trying to find ways to make people laugh, make my own family laugh.”