Miranda Hart says 'there is hope' after getting married at 51 amid suffering chronic illness

Actress and comedian Miranda Hart said "there is hope" after revealing her secret marriage at the age of 51 amid her recovery from chronic illness. The star admitted "it's been a tough few years" after a battle with Lyme disease.

She announced her happy news on the BBC's The One Show during an interview to promote her new book, I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest With You. And she later said she found her fans' delight at her news “really very touching”.

Miranda, who starred in her self-titled TV sitcom from 2009 until 2015, is keeping her husband's identity a secret - apart from a brief glimpse of his hand in a video posted to Twitter.

READ MORE: Miranda Hart on brink of tears over 'people who ignored' her devastating health battle

She said: "He’s my best friend, we have the best fun and I’m just thrilled to be a young bride at 51. The fact that I met someone during a pandemic, during chronic illness when I couldn’t get out of bed or get out of the house, and I really really wanted to meet someone, I didn’t want to do life on my own any more, and I kind of admitted that to myself and I tell that story in the book.

"The fact that I could meet somebody is not some kind of rom-com story, but it’s hope, there is always hope, things can always change."

And she added: “I’d written Gary for on-screen Miranda and it wasn’t until I was 49 that I met my person, and I met him and it’s a little undercurrent in the book. I’m not going to reveal how we met as that is a little bit of a twist."

Miranda said her husband was not Tom Ellis, the actor who played her on-screen lover Gary Preston in the BBC sitcom. And posting a video on X, she said: “I’ve got my best friend to do life with and it’s wonderful and I’m also utterly thrilled to be back in telly land and having a book out so thanks so much for all your support.”

Hart ended the video high-fiving her husband, which she joked was an "exclusive".

She said she missed the TV studio floor, missed laughter, and was "really keen to get back to some silliness".

The comedian also opened up this week about her health this week and suffering with Lyme disease, which left her bedbound.

She has talked about living with the chronic illness for years without being diagnosed while promoting her new book. Miranda lived with symptoms for many years before she got a diagnosis “under the banner of ME”.

She said: “I rejoined the dots with my symptomology and my history and realised that probably when I was about 14 or 15 I got a tick-borne illness in the form of Lyme disease, and that’s when my symptoms started. You could call it long Lyme.

“It was such a relief to finally be understood. Being misunderstood and misjudged is one of the hardest things about these kind of conditions.”

Lyme disease is a bacterial infection that can be spread to humans by infected ticks, according to the NHS website.

When Hart was bedbound with the disease, she said she had to learn to “live moment by moment” because she could not keep herself busy with work.

Reflecting on how she is now, she said: “Emotionally, I feel very well, which is important for me to say, because obviously I’ve been labelled as the anxious one.

“Physically, I think there’s just a little way to go to get my full energy back. Getting back to work has been a really exciting next step, but a bit of an adjustment.

“I have to be careful how much I say yes to and how much I say no to… But, in a year, I feel like it’s possible, with this diagnosis, to have my full energy back.

“And at the moment I still deal with the ghastly fatigue from time to time, but in a much more accepting and calm way, not always.”

Miranda starred in her self-titled TV sitcom from 2009 until 2015. The show earned her her three Royal Television Society awards, four British Comedy Awards and four BAFTA nominations.

She has also appeared in BBC sitcoms Hyperdrive and Not Going Out.

Miranda currently lives in West London and is a Christian and once told Victoria Coren Mitchell, "It's scary to say you're pro-God". Growing up she was in the same class as sports presenter Clare Balding, who remains her friend.

Miranda is one of the guests on The Graham Norton Show on BBC One on Friday night, at 10.40pm.