PRESS UPDATE : THE TELEGRAPH .. FRIDAY APRIL 24TH 2020 ..

Joan Collins: 'I don't want to get Covid bum'!

By Joan Collins

I know it’s tempting to adopt a ‘whatever it takes to get me through this’ mentality, but routines are important, and I’ve been careful to keep one up since lockdown started. 

I’ll wake up between 7.30 and 8am and read the four newspapers I have delivered daily - one of which, of course, is this one – as I watch Good Morning Britain and This Morning. I can usually manage to spin that out for at least three hours, with endless cups of coffee and toast with jam – although if I’m being good I’ll have cereal. Then I do exercise, which I’m very disciplined about. Three times a week I exercise on Skype with my trainer. She’s fantastic, although this morning we were doing it and the internet went down half-way through, so there can be problems.

I’m afraid I haven’t been so disciplined elsewhere; I’ve been hitting the biscuit tin hard, and the chocolate box. Also Percy is the most wonderful cook, so he has been putting together delicious suppers for us both. I have noticed that the elasticised waists are now cutting into me. My bête noir has always been my stomach – ever since I was a little girl – and although I haven’t weighed myself, I guess I’ve put on a couple of pounds. I’m not worried about it because there are far more important things to worry about and be grateful for right now - and because I know I know that any weight gain is purely down to the situation we’re in.

People have asked whether I’m wearing full make-up every day – but what is full make-up? I certainly always put on lipstick every morning, and moisturiser. And I get dressed: we don’t like dressing gowns here. Contrary to what people think, I do own sweatpants. In fact I’ve got many horrible, ratty, moth-eaten cotton and cashmere sweatpants without matching tops that I wander around in, looking like goodness knows what.

I’m still very busy throughout the day, either taking pictures like the ones put out recently for Comic Relief’s limited edition £15 t-shirt, or making videos for the Shooting Star Children’s Hospice of which I'm patron: they’re so desperately in need of money. But I’ve also found time to go through the closet and put together things I no longer need or wear for charity. People are surprised to hear that Percy and I have been splitting the cleaning, but I’m a fantastic bed-maker and very good with a duster.

I’m such a sociable creature; we both are. And I’ve started having Zoom cocktails with friends like Christopher Biggins, Louise Fennell and other friends in LA. I’ll talk to my daughters on Houseparty, which is great.

While this lasts, it’s important for us to have something to look forward to. The other day I said to Percy: ‘Will you take me to dinner when this is over?’ And he said: ‘I’ll take you to breakfast, lunch and dinner every day for a month.’ We love restaurants, you see, and going out. I’m not a couch potato, and I don’t want to sit at home getting a ‘Covid bum’, but I know that we’re doing the right thing and paying such a small price when you consider what so many are going through. The thought of being able to see my daughters and my grandchildren again is constantly there at the forefront of my mind. And when I think about being back in our house in the South of France once again, beside the pool, with a group of friends? Well that’s a mental snapshot worth holding onto.