CONNIE'S COMEBACK

Three years after losing her husband, Connie Ferguson talks about missing Shona, how exercise helps her cope and relaunching her beauty brand

- NOKUTHULA ZWANE-EJIKE

SHE'S like a machine in the gym, throwing ropes, performing one-handed pushups, doing crunches, skipping with dazzling speed and skill, lifting weights, running, jumping, boxing...

It makes you tired just to look at her but for Connie Ferguson exercise is like a drug - it's her feel-good fix, her way of coping with the grief that lingers in the shadows of every day.

The actress, producer and businesswoman has always enjoyed working out but after she lost her husband, actor Shona Ferguson, three years ago she threw herself into it with renewed vigour.

"Exercise is just so good for the soul, spirit and mind," she says. "It's become a lifestyle and it's not a chore anymore. I don't have to drag myself out of bed to go to gym - I look forward to going.

"And then my body becomes a bonus." And what a bonus it is. At the age of 54 Connie is as ripped as a professional athlete, with a six-pack that looks like it's been chiselled from clay, rock-hard thighs and arms that defy the force of gravity.

Connie regularly shares her gruelling sessions on social media and she's amassed quite a following - nearly 5 million fans on Instagram, nearly 800 000 on TikTok and more than a million on X.

But what her fans don't see is the pain she lives with and today she does what she's rarely done publicly she opens up about coming to terms with the sorrow and trauma of losing her husband.

"I haven't seen him for three years yet I feel his presence," she says. "You learn to accept the things you cannot change."

For 20 years Shona had been her soulmate, her anchor and her best friend and in the days after he passed away there were nights Connie wished she wouldn't wake up.