TV star Amanda Holden was forced to defend herself during a “bizarre” incident at a breast cancer fundraiser — after she won a diamond bracelet worth thousands of pounds.
The Britain's Got Talent judge, 55, was helping to host the Future Dreams Ladies Lunch at The Savoy Hotel and the event was concluded with a raffle. However, after pulling out the winning numbers, which happened to be her own, Amanda insisted that it wasn’t a fix, before giving up the prize.
Shock on stage
She told the story on Heart Breakfast to co-host Jamie Theakston, saying it was an emotional afternoon with lots of tears and lots of laughter. Speaking about how it ended, she said: “Anyway, it finished with a big raffle and I’m sat at my table. I’m thinking, I’m finished, I’ve done my bit. And someone said, ‘Oh could you just come and pull the number out of the hat.’
“I go up on stage and I give my ticket to the lady that’s been looking after me all day, getting me on and off the stage and making sure everything was running smoothly. I go up on the stage, I make a big song and dance, swish it all around, swish it all around…”
Prize donated by Garrard
Amanda added that there were about 1,000 people in the room and that the raffle prize was for a “beautiful diamond bracelet” that Garrard had donated — which was “worth a lot of money”.
After picking out a raffle ticket from the hundreds inside, and reading the number out, the woman at the side of the stage informed her that it was actually her number.
Giving her reaction, Amanda said: “I swore on stage! I said, ‘You are joking.’ I went down into a ball on stage and came back up and went, ‘Oh my god, it’s not a fix. Not a fix.’”
She added: “Oh my gosh, nothing like that has ever happened to me in my life.”
Impressive auction
Amanda, who hosts the quiz show The Celebrity Inner Circle, decided to hold an impromptu auction for the bracelet rather than keeping it herself, and a woman in the audience paid £4,000 to have it, which helped raise even more funds for breast cancer.
She said the “bizarre awfulness” had a happy ending and, laughing, she said: “I couldn’t believe it. It’s making me think I need to do EuroMillions this week.”
Amanda co-hosts the weekday Heart Breakfast show with Jamie Theakston from 6.30am to 10am and the pair started doing it together back in 2019. At the time Jamie said: “This is a massively exciting opportunity in taking this show nationwide and I’m beyond thrilled to have my friend Amanda join me in the fun. Listeners can expect the unexpected from Amanda, just as I have learned to do over the years!”
The Celebrity Inner Circle airs on BBC One this evening (September 26) from 5.30pm.
