Miranda Hart has revealed she feared she might die after collapsing on her living room floor at home, alone with her dog Peggy, before her Lyme disease diagnosis in 2020.
The comedian is among 21 famous faces competing in the second series of the BBC programme Celebrity Traitors, which begins tonight (Thursday, October 1). Her television appearances have been sporadic over the past decade as she dealt with a crippling condition that left her practically housebound.
Years of unexplained exhaustion
The 53-year-old endured overwhelming fatigue for decades while being dismissed by numerous medics. She finally received a Lyme disease diagnosis in 2020 after years of battling severe chronic symptoms, which had initially been wrongly identified as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, commonly referred to as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
Lyme disease is a bacterial infection passed to humans via the bite of an infected tick. Hart suspects she contracted the infection while living in Virginia, USA at approximately 14 or 15 years of age, an area notorious for the ticks that carry the illness. She believes it occurred more than three decades before her eventual diagnosis.
Collapse at home
In her memoir, I Haven't Been Entirely Honest With You, Hart revealed details of an episode where she crumpled to her home floor, fearing she might perish with only her dog for company.
She said: "I was alone and had just collapsed on my sitting room floor, the worried licks of my dog, Peggy, trying to help me. I couldn't really move, such was the degree of exhaustion.
"I remember saying, 'it's very rare to die of exhaustion. I'm not OK, but it's OK,' trying to reassure Peggy as much as myself. I felt very weak. Like I didn't exist. Like I was fading away."
This marked the initial instance Hart collapsed, occurring before she eventually received her Lyme disease diagnosis. She disclosed she felt melancholy rather than frightened as she believed she had "nothing left to give".
Decades of misdiagnosis
Since Hart's ailment remained undetected for decades, the bacteria remained inactive or flared up periodically. This triggered baffling chronic tiredness, joint frailty and neurological problems that medics consistently misdiagnosed or dismissed.
She added: "The emotion from years of wondering how I would make it through the day, or never really knowing why I was so exhausted, enveloped me like a heavy cloak. I just lay there. And waited.
"Either my body would start to come around or I would fade away. There was nothing I could do about it. I sank further into the rug and let out a long sigh."
Hart rose to stardom with her semi-autobiographical sitcom, Miranda, which debuted on the BBC in 2009 and garnered numerous accolades. Celebrity Traitors begins tonight from 8pm to 9.15pm on BBC One.
