Dame Joan Collins broke down in tears on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories as she recalled the death of her mother, dance teacher Elsa Collins.
Piers began: “Your mother sadly died of cancer in 1962, you were only 29 and she was only 56, incredibly young, do you remember that period, did you know she was dying?”
Joan, 88, replied: “Yes, I did know, this is the part when you want to make me cry, isn’t it?
“Jackie told me, but we were told it wasn’t that serious, and nobody ever said the word cancer. Cancer was a word in the 1960s you just didn’t say.
“We were told it was just a very bad, flu-like illness, even though I knew she’d had very bad mastectomy, but we didn’t talk about it.
“We were in my childhood house, and daddy came in and said, ‘She’s gone’. And I went in and she was lying there and she had gone.
“And I called my sister, my brother was there, he was only 14, and yes it was very upsetting, and you have made me cry, Piers!” Joan remarked as she wiped away her tears.
Joan added that she wished her mother had survived to meet her three children, her grandchildren, and see her stellar career.
Joan’s sister Jackie had been diagnosed with stage four breast cancer more than six years before her death in 2015, but had only told her sister about it just two weeks before her death.
Joan revealed she heard through a friend that Jackie had died, when they called to give their condolences – before Joan’s brother had even called her to tell her the news.
Later on, she continued: “I think in that respect she did the right thing because she did not want pity. It is a similar thing that daddy did with mummy when she had cancer.
“But I think she did the wrong thing because I had been telling her for years that you have to go and have a mammogram, and she didn’t, and she had something and she didn’t do anything about it.
(Image: FilmMagic)
“Finally, she was dragged there by Tiffany her daughter and that is when he said, ‘You have got stage four cancer.'”
Joan continued: “She told me in the south of France. She called and she said, “I just want to tell you something… I don’t want you to get upset.
“And she said, ‘I’ve got stage four cancer,’ and I said, ‘How is that possible?’
“I know you can do so much these days, so I didn’t really worry about it too much, because I really thought… My motto was, ‘Always look on the bright side.’
* Piers Morgan’s Life Stories with Dame Joan Collins is available to watch back on ITV Hub
