Julie's career bombshell WHY I HAVE TO GIVE UP ACTING

ILLNESS HAS GIVEN THE BELOVED STAR A WAKE-UP CALL

- Judy Kean

Developing bowel cancer is one of the most devastating things that has ever happened to British actress Julie Walters. And yet, the shocking diagnosis has come with a strange sense of relief because it means she can give up acting.

The veteran film and TV star, who has been given the all-clear after treatment, believes her stressful job contributed to her getting sick, and says she had a “weird reaction” to learning she had cancer.

“Part of me was going, ‘Oh my God, I’ve got cancer!’ And I’m dealing with the shock of that, and it’s all systems go to have it treated.

“But there was also an element of, ‘I don’t have to do any more work. I can actually get off this treadmill.’ Once you get something like cancer, something has to change.”

Julie, 70, says she needed something to stop her from working so hard. “Cancer trumps everything. So there was a huge relief in it, which is strange.

“I was due to do two big series, and there were two films. I just didn’t have to do any of it. And that was wonderful.”

She has no plans at the moment to do any more work and her newly released film, The Secret Garden, may well be her last, “unless there’s another Mamma Mia!”, she says. “It would have to be something I’m really engaged with.”