Entertainment

Beverley Knight: Hysterectomy drained my superpowers

The star has spoken of her new “supernova” supergroup, Leading Ladies.
The star has spoken of her new “supernova” supergroup, Leading Ladies.

Singer Beverley Knight has said it felt like her “superpowers were draining” when she underwent a hysterectomy due to having muscular tumours in her uterus.

But Knight has said that joining forces with Glee actress Amber Riley and West End star Cassidy Janson for a new album helped to restore her strength throughout her recovery.

The 44-year-old star recently underwent a hysterectomy when she was diagnosed with uterine fibroids that left her stomach so swollen she thought she was pregnant.

Knight has said that her musical union with Riley and Janson was partly down to her illness, but also because she thought they would be stronger together as a newly formed supergroup called Leading Ladies.

On her decision to join forces with them for an album of show tune classics, Knight told ITV’s Loose Women: “It was more to do with the fact that, creatively I thought the idea is cool but, you know, I’m not sure it would be interesting enough just me on my own.

“To have Amber and CJ on board has been brilliant.”

She added: “But yes, a hysterectomy changes everything permanently. And I did feel as though my superpowers were draining.

“But I’m glad because getting Amber and CJ next to me, and us creating a supernova, a female supernova together, has restored that strength.”

Knight, who has said she did not want children, said she felt no regret over having the surgery, but that it did have an impact on her.

She said: “I didn’t really feel regret, because I knew my own mind… It’s one thing to make a decision – no to children, I’m busy, doing things – but it’s quite another to have the rug yanked from underneath you.

“And these fibroids growing in me and I had no idea, and then I had to have the whole lot removed, and I thought, oh right, OK.”

Asked if she went straight into the menopause following the operation, Knight said she has not “because my ovaries are still intact” but added that “it will come sooner” for her.