Kathy Burke has long been known for her candour, but in her new memoir, the actress is getting more honest than ever. The Kevin & Perry Go Large actress, 61, released A Mind of My Own in September 2025, where she takes a look back at her life and career to date – and is particularly frank about the extremely personal topic of motherhood. Kathy has readily admitted that while she had previously thought about becoming a mother, she never felt that it was a priority.
"I'd often thought about having a baby. I was in my late 30s, so the clock was ticking, but it wasn’t something I was crying out for," she penned. "I (had) a short broody spell in my early 30s, but wasn't interested in having a child with the person I was with at the time."
© GettyShe added: "Having a baby had never been my true heart's calling. I've had lovely relationships with the kids in my life, but I’m always happier once I hand them back. And much the same can be said for romantic relationships." Her approach to potentially becoming a mother took a different turn as she navigated a battle with her health.
© GettyWhen she was 40, Kathy found herself in the hospital for major stomach surgery for diverticulitis (where small bulges or pouches in the walls of the intestine causes abdominal pain) and soon afterward, was diagnosed with a rare blood condition.
Kathy's health battle
Opening up to the Guardian in 2022, the Gimme Gimme Gimme star admitted: "What the doctors didn’t realise is I’ve also got a blood condition called Hughes syndrome, which causes the blood to clot. And so with the C difficile, because my immune system had just gone out the [expletive] window, my adrenal glands clotted and bled. So I have no natural adrenaline now. I have been on steroids for 17 years." The star also previously suffered a miscarriage.
© GettyIt is not just her health condition that Kathy reflects on in A Mind of My Own. She also revisits her childhood, having grown up on a council estate in Islington, London and how her two brothers were raised by their father, who was an alcoholic, after their mother's death from cancer when she was two.
She also describes having found a sense of escapism at drama school (Kathy trained at the Anna Scher Theatre School in Islington, which was later attended by Black Panther star Daniel Kaluuya) and her subsequent rise to fame. Her first major film role came in 1982 when she starred in Mai Zetterling's Scrubbers alongside Robbie Coltraine and Miriam Margolyes. Since then, she has won numerous awards for her acting work, including the Best Actress award at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival for her role in Nil by Mouth starring Ray Winstone.
