Gavin and Stacey star Joanna Page, 49, made a candid admission about her marriage on the latest episode of BBC One's Saturday Kitchen Live. The actress joined host Matt Tebbutt, 52, alongside chefs Max Halley and Adam Byatt, and wine expert Helen McGinn.
Podcast as Marriage Counselling
During the show, Joanna revealed that her hit podcast, Lush! with Joanna Page, has unexpectedly become a form of marriage counselling for her and her husband James Thornton. The couple, who married in 2003 and share four children aged between 4 and 13, have found the podcast a platform to resolve arguments.
Joanna explained: "It's my podcast that I've been inviting my husband on quite a lot. And we're finding that it's turning out to be a bit like couples therapy." She added: "Well, normally, by the time you record, we're normally in a barney and we'll have argued during the week. And he would then go, 'well, do you want me to come in on Friday to record?' And I'd be like, 'yes, I do.' And then we'd go in and then we'd just start chatting and then we'd deal with the argument. Talk through it."
The actress continued: "He would come out completely revitalised like a new man because he's, you know, been forced to sit and look at me and talk for two hours. I'd come out feeling emotionally connected and it's like revitalised our marriage."
Chatty Welshness
Later in the show, Matt Tebbutt quipped about Joanna's talkative nature: "You're quite a chatter, aren't you?" Joanna confessed: "I am. I am. It's the Welshness!" The conversation then turned to Matt's own connection to Wales, with Joanna initially unaware that he had lived there since he was three months old. Matt joked about being surrounded by Welsh people, saying: "Surrounded by them. You [Welsh people] get everywhere! You're never that far from a Welsh!"
James Thornton, Joanna's husband, is best known for playing John Barton in Emmerdale from 2009 to 2012, with other credits including Stella, Holby City, and No Angels. Saturday Kitchen airs on Saturday mornings on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
