{"id":454071,"date":"2026-05-31T12:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T12:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/454071\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T12:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T12:50:11","slug":"my-husband-has-to-go-outside-dawn-french-68-on-the-chronic-condition-that-drives-her-mad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/454071\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cMy husband has to go outside\u201d: Dawn French, 68, on the chronic condition that drives her mad"},"content":{"rendered":"

She\u2019s a national comedy treasure who can make almost anyone laugh, but even Dawn French<\/a> has her bugbears – and one particular frustration is enough to have her husband spending some time outside. In an exclusive interview with Good Housekeeping, she opened up about the chronic condition that drives her mad \u2013 and what it means for her charity executive partner Mark Bignell.<\/p>\n

When asked about her biggest pet hate, the 68-year-old responded: \u201cCrunching. I\u2019ve got that thing called misophonia where you can\u2019t bear to hear other people\u2019s chewing noises. My husband, who likes crackers, has to eat them outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

While once upon a time, Dawn might have apologised for the inconvenience, she says the most underrated joy is getting older is that you don\u2019t have to people-please quite so much anymore. \u201cWhy on earth are we always apologising? \u2018Sorry, could you pass me the salt?\u2019 Why is that such a tricky question that intrinsically demands an apology?\u201d she said. \u201cI try not to do it so much now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"individual<\/p>\n

Jonty Davies<\/p>\n

Dawn has been thinking a lot about getting older lately. The Vicar of Dibley star has recently published her fifth novel, Enough<\/a>, about a mentally and physically fit 68-year-old grandmother who gathers her family to tell them that this will be her last day on Earth. Etta has decided she wants to free her family \u201cfrom the crap to come\u201d and she will therefore be ending her life. <\/p>\n

\u201cEtta thinks she\u2019s doing her family a favour by removing the crunchy, spiky, possibly ugly last part of her life from her kids\u201d, Dawn explained in the interview, which is in Good Housekeeping’s July issue. \u201cI\u2019ve got a feeling these thoughts are on people\u2019s minds a lot of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

If it all sounds rather morbid, Dawn\u2019s signature humour is very present throughout, though its themes did, Dawn admitted, have her PA slightly worried for a moment. Dawn writes all her books by hand and each of them are typed up by Sue, Dawn\u2019s beloved PA of 34 years. When Sue was halfway through typing up Enough, she called her up and asked if she was okay. <\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Jonty Davies<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was another sign that people will inevitably think, \u2018Bloody hell, Dawn French is having a moment.\u2019 But I\u2019m not afraid of what anyone thinks.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far, the response to the book has been huge, with readers calling it \u201cabsolutely brilliant\u201d and \u201cinsightful and empathetic\u201d. Many have called for more laughs from Dawn, which is just as well given she\u2019s working on a second series of her BBC sitcom, Can You Keep a Secret?, as well as finally bringing us that reunion. <\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t already hard, Dawn will be reuniting with her comedy partner in crime Jennifer Saunders<\/a> to star in panto this Christmas. The pair will play the Ugly Sisters in Cinderella at the London Palladium \u2013 and Dawn couldn\u2019t be more thrilled about it. <\/p>\n

\"dawn<\/p>\n

Jonty Davies<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be naughtier than anything I\u2019ve ever done, partly because Julian Clary will be playing the Fairy Godfather and everything he says is loaded with innuendo,\u201d she shared. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt also means that Jennifer and I will be able to spend all that time together. People used to ask us to do panto in the 1980s, but it wasn\u2019t fun back then the way it is now. The script for Cinderella is genius \u2013 it will be a kind of festive variety show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the full interview in Good Housekeeping UK\u2019s July issue, on sale now. Enough (Penguin Michael Joseph, RRP \u00a322) by Dawn French is out now.<\/p>\n

READ MORE FROM GH’S COVER STARS HERE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She\u2019s a national comedy treasure who can make almost anyone laugh, but even Dawn French has her bugbears…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,231024,231026,231025,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-454071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-dawn-french","tag-dawn-french-chronic-condition","tag-dawn-french-husband","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}