Miranda Hart has spoken on Celebrity Traitors about the health issues that have paused her TV career, including a battle that left her fearing she would never walk again. The comedian is currently appearing on the BBC show, filmed earlier this year and aired twice a week throughout October, where she has discussed how her multiple health conditions have affected her life.
Emotional moment on the show
One emotional moment went viral when she tearfully spoke about the need for connection. Following the banishment of Joe Lycett, she said: "I can't believe how emotional I'm getting. Connection and laughter and joy are bigger than this game. And to meet someone and just play and laugh, it's all us humans need. I've had times in my life where I haven't had that, through illness and it's brought up that silly, sensitive soul."
She added: "I haven't played like that or kind of laughed like that in so long. So suddenly, the floodgates opened, and it was suddenly not about a silly Faithful or Traitor, you know?"
Lyme disease and ME diagnosis
Miranda's health problems began when she was a teenager. In her 2024 memoir, I Haven't Been Entirely Honest with You, she revealed she was "about 14 or 15" when she got a tick-borne illness and started developing symptoms of Lyme disease, including high temperatures and fatigue. She was only diagnosed with the disease in 2020, and it eventually led to Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), also known as chronic fatigue syndrome.
The illness is a complex, long-term, multi-system condition that causes severe fatigue not aided by rest and impairs cognitive function. It can also cause heart palpitations, muscle pain, headaches and dizziness. On The One Show, Miranda shared how it had "played havoc" with her immune system, reactivating her shingles.
Collapse and recovery
Her health deteriorated just as her sitcom, Miranda, was ending in 2015, and the actress collapsed while at home. She later said she was left "bed-bound without joy" and feared she would not walk again. On Celebrity Traitors, during a challenge involving building statues, she said: "Three years ago, due to illness, I thought that I may never have a gentle walk around a park again. And I find myself up a Scottish Highland wheelbarrowing along a very large head. It was very exciting."
Talking to BBC Radio 4, Miranda explained how hard it was to work while battling ME: "Unless you've had fatigue [like that], you don't understand what literally not getting off the floor is. I was basically bed-bound and house-bound. There'd be times where I'd look at a glass of water and think, I don't know how to pick that up."
Return to television
The star has stepped away from the limelight in recent years, and Celebrity Traitors marked her first return to television since a Christmas game show in 2020. Ahead of the show, she confessed: "I'm still living with elements of ME, and that brings fatigue and pain to manage, but I have come to a point where I feel well enough to step out, and that's also partly why I'm doing this."
