'I FEEL LIKE MY HYSTERECTOMY HAS BEEN AN ATTACK ON MY FEMININITY'

FORMER EASTENDERS ACTRESS RITA SIMONS REVEALS EXCLUSIVELY TO OK! THAT SHE HAS HAD LIFE-CHANGING SURGERY, AND HOW PARTNER BEN HARLOW IS HELPING HER HEAL

Bravely sharing her story just days after having a hysterectomy, former EastEnders star Rita Simons reveals her recovery will not just be physical but emotional, too.

Speaking exclusively to OK!, the 45-year-old admits that while she knew the op was the right thing to do – ending years of suffering – she felt she was being robbed of her femininity, as well as the chance to be a mum again.

“As a woman, we often take for granted that you can get pregnant and then when you are not able to and the choice is taken away...” Rita trails off.

Already mum to twin girls Jaimee and Maiya, 16, she did not consider having more children when she got together with her partner Ben Harlow before lockdown in 2020. She instead focused on enjoying the new lease of life he gave her after feeling low following her divorce.

“It’s a really strange thing because you don’t think you’d be that bothered until you’re in that situation, and then suddenly you’re like, ‘What if I do want kids in five years?’” she says candidly.

“Ben knows... he’s not stupid and he knows it upsets me that, as a woman, I’m not able to become pregnant any more and I think, being so sweet, he wouldn’t have dared say, ‘But I want kids!’ He knows what those conversations meant and he knows it meant potentially, in the future, we could have, but that it’s completely off the table.”

It was in the early months of their relationship that Rita decided to speak to a consultant about her debilitating and irregular periods, which affected her ability to work and had also been causing spikes in her OCD and anxiety.