Bonnie Langford – who is on Tipping Point: Lucky Stars tonight (Sunday, April 14) – once opened up about losing her close friend.
The Doctor Who and EastEnders star has previously admitted that the death of her pal still “haunts” her.
Bonnie Langford on death of Lena Zavaroni
Back in 2018, Bonnie did an interview with the MailOnline. During the interview, the 59-year-old, who first found fame aged just six, opened up about the death of her childhood friend, Lena Zavaroni.
Lena died in 1999. She had a long battle with anorexia and chronic depression during her life.
Bonnie and Lena were at Italia Conti drama school together and did the same shows as kids.
The star explained that as there weren’t many children doing what they were doing, they “bonded”.
“The two of us were pretty similar. I had this image of being all very bubbly and loud, but I never was. We were actually pretty shy so we kept our singing, dancing and confidence for the stage, and off-stage we just liked being as normal as possible. Our favourite thing to do together was go shopping at Brent Cross,” she said.
Bonnie is from a family of performers, however, Lena wasn’t. The TV star then went on to reason that Lena moving from Scotland to London at the age of 10 was “difficult”.
Bonnie Langford talks death of friend Lena Zavaroni
“You find it hard to fit in to where you are but also going back to where you come from. I was aware Lena was having issues as we got older because she was disappearing in front of me and being very fussy about food. I would try to persuade her to eat. But it’s a very complicated illness. She called me to tell me she was having a lobotomy [in fact she underwent neurosurgery] to try to rid herself of her depression. I was horrified but again there was nothing I could do,” Bonnie said.
“And then she died soon after having that operation. At her funeral I was the only one sitting there after the service ended because they were playing her music and the great sadness for me is that people remember Lena and the tragedy, and they forget how brilliant she was as a singer. I still cannot listen to her version of Going Nowhere [by Neil Sedaka] without breaking down in tears,” she said.
Bonnie talks fame
Bonnie then spoke about how she won’t let her daughter, Biana, fall victim to fame. At the time of the interview, Bonnie revealed that Biana had hopes for a career in show business.
She said that she knows how “fabulous” showbiz can be, despite how tough it is too.
However, she explained that she had “drilled” it into her daughter that at the end of the day, that it is a job. She then said that she has told her that she needs to take “it all on the chin”.
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Tipping Point: Lucky Stars airs tonight (Sunday, April 14) at 7pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
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