She was only sixteen when her entire life cracked open—thrown out of her home, blamed for a trauma she never asked for, and told by her own father that she was “no longer his daughter.”
What might have destroyed someone else became the catalyst that pushed her toward a future no one in her family could have imagined. Born in New Zealand and raised in Australia by brilliant but cold parents, she had spent her childhood under pressure to excel, to be perfect, to never falter.
But the day she was rejected instead of comforted, something inside her hardened—not into bitterness, but into resolve. Her pain became the soil where her courage grew.
Years later, she would step into the spotlight and explode onto television screens across the United Kingdom. With razor-sharp timing, bold confidence, and a wicked sense of humor, she became the woman who electrified Not the Nine O’Clock News, stealing scenes beside Rowan Atkinson and reshaping what audiences believed women in comedy could do.
Hollywood followed—then Superman III, talk shows, and eventually Saturday Night Live, where she became one of the rare international cast members to break through. The world laughed with her, unaware that behind the glamorous blonde who delivered boundary-pushing jokes was a girl who had once been cast aside by the very people meant to love her most.
But comedy was only the beginning. After conquering stages and screens, she reinvented herself with astonishing clarity, walking away from fame to pursue psychology.
She became a doctor, a researcher, an author, and eventually the outspoken, warm, and unfiltered voice guiding people through the complexities of sex, intimacy, and emotional healing.
All the wounds she once carried in silence became the very experiences that allowed her to help others. And through it all, she built a life with Scottish comedian Billy Connolly—a marriage of creativity, chaos, profound love, and eventually caregiving, as she now supports him through Parkinson’s disease while still writing with the same fearless candor that made her a star decades ago.
Today she lives quietly in Florida, still witty, still sharp, still unafraid to speak the truth—even the uncomfortable parts. Hers is not just a story of reinvention; it is a lesson in survival.
A girl once kicked out for being hurt became a woman who made millions laugh, who healed strangers with insight, and who learned to give herself the tenderness she was once denied. She is living proof that the people who break you cannot decide who you become. Only you can.
