TV star Lisa Riley has revealed that when she was losing her mother to breast cancer four years ago, she asked her to send her signs from the afterlife.
Lisa, best known for Emmerdale and You’ve Been Framed, was desperate not to lose contact with mum Cath, who was only 57 when she died in September, 2012, just before Lisa took part in Strictly.
Now 39, and directing a touring play called The Naked Truth, Lisa says: “I was always telling Mum she must send me signs and messages.
“People talk about guardian angels. Well, she’s my mum and she’s on my shoulder. I talk to her all the time. I ask her for advice, and I get signs.
“It often involves the colour yellow, which was thing we had. She and I must have watched the film Beaches about 200 times together.
“Last December, when I’d been ‘talking’ to her, I asked her to send me a sign that she was all right.
“Within two minutes, I pressed my Sky Planner and it highlighted Beaches on BBC1.
“That was all I needed. I find it extremely comforting and therapeutic.”
Lisa is convinced her late mother was responsible for bringing “the man of my dreams” into her life in May, 2014.
“I think she made it happen. From the bottom of my heart, I believe that,” explains Lisa.
“It’s going great, but I don’t want to talk about it.
“Privacy is the one thing I’m entitled to. My family and friends are so happy for me, and they are who matters to me — the British public doesn’t need to approve my private life.”
Lisa recently revealed she has lost almost half her bodyweight as part of a campaign to improve her health, dropping from a size 28/30 to a size 16.
But she insists, as always, that she was happy even when she was obese.
“I was,” she revealed. “It’s the complete truth. When I was size 26/28, I was enormous.
“You look at photos and I was happy — when I looked in the mirror, too. It’s my soul. It’s who Lisa Riley is.
“But it drives me mad when people now say: ‘Don’t lose any more weight or you won’t be you!’
“Well, of course I’ll be me. How dare anyone say that to me! That’s basically saying: ‘Stay fat and put yourself in an early grave.’
“It’s true that if a casting director thinks of Lisa Riley, it’s for the overweight roles. But when I did Calendar Girls, I had to be blonde, so I dyed my hair.
“That’s what actors do — we’re chameleons. It’s the next chapter of my life, and I like this one.”
Something else she’d like to do is to explore more of the world, saying: “Travel is my addiction.
“I’d like to do it more. I used to work myself into the ground. Now I’m taking more time for me.”
With the new play, which is set in a village hall pole-dancing class, Lisa is making her directorial debut.
She won’t appear in this production, but hasn’t forgotten how to pole-dance.
“I’ll happily shock people by doing a trick,” she smiles. “I can pole-dance!”
Tricks aside, will she ever return to Emmerdale?
She reveals: “People say to me: ‘You’ve got to go back to playing Mandy.’
“Well, I had seven and a half years of that and I loved it, but there are people who stay in soap operas for years and that’s not me.
“I’ve still not done a period drama, and that’s on my bucket list — playing the wench with the blacked-out teeth!”
The Naked Truth will tour until July 1. For more information, visit www.worldonstage.net/the-naked-truth.html
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