I'M MAKING A COMEBACK, BABY!

Patricia Lewis put her career on the back burner 10 years ago to concentrate on being a mom and to give her health a chance to recover. But now she’s raring to go

- CYRIL BLACKBURN

IT’S been 10 years since she turned her back on the glitz and glam of showbiz and these days people in the neighbourhood know her more as “Max’s mom” than veteran entertainer Patricia Lewis.

But that doesn’t mean she’s lost her sense of the dramatic – even today, as the doors to her three-storey mansion swing open, she appears at the top of the stairs, one knee bent, smile in place, signature blonde locks tumbling around her shoulders.

She doesn’t grant many interviews any more but she’s invited us to her luxury home on the Zimbali estate near Ballito on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast for a catch-up.

Patricia’s life has calmed down significantly since a decade ago, when she was performing as often as 30 times a month.

“Even here at the seaside, I couldn’t stay away from a microphone for long. Now this is my stage,” she says, gesturing to the ocean glittering in the sun beyond the window in the bar area.

“Put it this way: Patricia is singing for the dolphins.”

But in the next breath she reveals she’ll be making a return to the entertainment world and plans to release a new album later this year – and possibly return to TV too.

“I’m making a comeback, baby. I’m finally ready for it – readier than I’ve ever been before.”

PATRICIA (52) stepped away from her career when it was at its peak, deciding enough was enough. Record deals, TV shows – the whole shebang. Everything was turned down or cast aside.

Because, she says, behind her bubbly appearance she was suffering from burnout.

“I was exhausted. For 30 years I’d lived every single dream. There had been times I just couldn’t carry on – my hair fell out, my skin broke out, my voice disappeared.