Comedian and television personality Judi Love is preparing to embark on a major 23-date tour next year with her new show All About the Love, using humour to process past traumas including a terrifying kidnapping experience she endured at just seventeen years old.
From Trauma to Triumph: Finding Healing Through Humour
Love reveals that being held hostage by a date when she was seventeen became formative material for her comedy, though she now recounts the experience with characteristic wit and resilience. "What I've learned now I'm a 45-year-old woman," she explains, "is that traumas I've gone through remain in my system. It's laughter that's helped me."
The comedian describes how bringing humour to difficult experiences allows audiences to "lose that shame, to forgive themselves and to heal" alongside her. This philosophy forms the foundation of her upcoming tour, which begins on 12th February and runs until 24th May, including a performance at London's Eventim Apollo on 19th June.
The Journey from Social Work to Stardom
Before becoming a television regular, Love worked extensively in social care while raising two children as a single mother. "I've been a single parent for like, 20 years, and it's exhausting," she admits. "Money and success doesn't take away the emotion of my kids not growing up with their dad."
Her background in social work, dealing with young offenders and mental health services, provided deep empathy she now channels into her comedy. "I could empathise, having a complex family with complex lives myself," she reflects, noting the high proportion of Black and working-class women in the care sector.
Love's career transition began in earnest after her mother's death in 2009, which triggered severe depression. "I was lost," she recalls. "I'd grown up as 'Judi with the sick mum', but then she died. Who was I now?" A transformative trip to Barbados helped her reset, leading to her first comedy gigs around 2011 while simultaneously completing a master's degree in social work.
Breaking Barriers in British Comedy
Love has become a trailblazer in the entertainment industry, becoming the first Black British female comic to sell out the London Palladium in 2024. Despite this achievement, she remains conscious of the pressures that come with representation.
"I wrote my master's dissertation on how stereotypes of the 'strong Black woman' affect our emotional and mental health," she reveals. "That was my mum and my family. This narrative, I realised, is killing us."
The comedian notes that many Black British entertainers have felt compelled to move to America to advance their careers, citing Gina Yashere and London Hughes as examples. "I'm happy to be doing this," she says, "as long as I'm not the last."
Despite her success, Love still faces challenges in the industry, including dyslexia that makes reading Autocue difficult and being frequently mistaken for other Black women. "It doesn't matter how rich or successful I am: bitch, you're Alison Hammond today," she quips.
Balancing Motherhood and Stardom
Even with her busy schedule that includes regular appearances on Loose Women, panel shows, and upcoming acting roles in Channel 4's Schooled and Rebel Wilson's film Girl Group, Love prioritises her children above all else.
"If I'm filming or performing away," she explains, "even if it's a 2am finish and four hours of travelling after, I've got to get me home so my kids wake up with me there." The constant juggle brings guilt, wondering if her children will later feel she "missed everything" during their childhood.
Looking ahead, Love plans to complete a PhD in psychotherapy, envisioning a future where she might balance comedy with therapy sessions. "It's the great thing about being a 45-year-old woman in 2025," she declares. "I can go and study my PhD, I can sell out the Palladium; I can have another baby, get married, or go out and be a massive hoe. I can do what my mum, aunties and grandmas couldn't."
Through it all, Love maintains the perspective that fuelled her early career: "Even then we were rich in love. We might have only had a couple of three-for-a-pound packets of noodles, but we filled our time with joy, because we had less."
