Downtown singer Petula Clark has said she “never had a normal life” as she reflected on a career spanning over 80 years.<\/p>\n
The 93-year-old, real name Sally Olwen Clark, started her career aged nine, when she began working as a child entertainer on BBC Radio 2 during the Second World War.<\/p>\n
Clark, who has the longest career of any British entertainer and has worked in the industry for eight decades, has discussed the “pressures” of being a performer.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Yours magazine, she said: “Being famous as a child meant I never had a normal life.<\/p>\n
“None of us did during the war, but the pressures of performing were there so early.<\/p>\n
“Later on, I did suffer from depression, and I had to get help.”<\/p>\n
Clark started her career in 1942 with her radio appearances, and she made her film debut in 1943. She went on to feature in more than 30 films.<\/p>\n
The star achieved her first major UK hit in 1954 with The Little Shoemaker.<\/p>\n
Across her decades-long career, she has won two Grammy Awards and has had two UK number one singles \u2013 Sailor and This Is My Song.<\/p>\n
In 2004, Clark’s recording of her 1964 hit single Downtown was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n
In the interview, she went on to speak about being a mother while balancing her busy career and said: “I often felt guilty about not being a normal mother.<\/p>\n
“When I had to leave them to work, saying goodbye was horrible.<\/p>\n
“They still remember those times. But, they also remember travelling first class to America.”<\/p>\n
Clark married her husband, French-born producer Claude Wolff, in 1961.<\/p>\n
The couple, who were together for more than 60 years, shared three children \u2013 Barbara, Katherine, and Patrick Wolff.<\/p>\n
Claude Wolff died in 2024 following a short illness, and Clark said she is “still mourning him”.<\/p>\n
From 2019 to 2022, the star appeared in the West End production of Mary Poppins, featuring in the musical as the Bird Woman.<\/p>\n
When asked if she plans to keep performing, she said: “I wouldn’t rule out another show.<\/p>\n
“But it’s a big investment for one night. Still\u2026 never say never.”<\/p>\n
She also reflected on her life and said: “I never thought I’d live this long. I used to think 65 was old.<\/p>\n
“I’ve had good health, a wonderful family, I’ve met incredible people. I’ve been very lucky.”<\/p>\n
During her career, she has worked as a singer-songwriter, composer, actress, and radio broadcaster, and she has even appeared in a British comic book as a character.<\/p>\n
In October this year, Clark published Is That You, Petula? \u2013 her first and only memoir.<\/p>\n
Source: Press Association<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Downtown singer Petula Clark has said she “never had a normal life” as she reflected on a career…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-206599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}