This week sees Amanda Holden let the cameras into her life in a new reality series The Holden Girls: Mandy & Myrtle (E4, Tuesday, 10pm). The show stars her nan – 85-year-old Myrtle from Doncaster – who you might think sounds a little familiar (she wouldn’t be out of place on Celebrity Juice) – but Amanda tells heat that her nan’s new to this showbiz lifestyle.
“This is the first time she’s even been to London,” the Britain’s Got Talent judge says.
heat is doing their debut joint magazine interview and “at home” photo shoot (all filmed for the first episode of the show) and when we ask what to expect from the series, Amanda tells us, “It’s not as glamorous as the Kardashians… but my nan is quite outspoken.”
And despite Amanda warning her nan, “This is heat magazine – be careful what you say,” Myrtle doesn’t hold back when it comes to opening about living with her granddaughter. “Amanda has been known to lock me in my room while she enjoys sexual exploits,” she says with a cheeky smirk. She then goes on to describe a “toy” she borrowed from Amanda’s bedroom before “wiping it clean with a flannel” – but unfortunately heat isn’t allowed to print the full details. Amanda asks us to make sure this is “off the record”.
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When we ask how Amanda keeps her amazing skin and physique (it’s hard to believe she turned 50 in February), Myrtle tells us, “She’s a lovely lady, but she wears too much make-up. She basically draws her face on. You wouldn’t recognise her in the mornings.”
As for celebrity crushes, Amanda reveals Nan has a soft spot for Ben Shephard – “Everything stops when Tipping Point is on.” Myrtle also confesses she likes “looking at pictures of Simon Cowell when he’s on his jet ski – he has a good chest of hair… but Mandy won’t give me his phone number.”
At this point, Amanda reveals that’s because Simon Cowell doesn’t actually have a phone. “We always call Lauren instead when we need him,” she tells us.
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Myrtle is coy about being famous in the future, but says she would like to go on Strictly if she could be partnered with Anton Du Beke. She’s also learning how to use social media “because I need to create some content” and is thinking of starting her own TikTok channel. She admits, “I don’t Twitter because they say horrible things about Mandy, like she’s too thin.” Although, Amanda laughs, “I’m happy for people to say that, thanks Nan!”
As far as her ambitions go, Myrtle tells us, “Amanda gets lots of freebies, so I’d like one of those special baths with a seat and a rail.”
And with that, Myrtle and Amanda head off upstairs to prepare for their first photo shoot together. Not before Myrtle tells us, “I like getting new outfits, but the lady who dresses me says I’ve got a ‘gunt’… I’d rather not know what that is. It sounds terrible.”
Read more in the latest issue of heat magazine - OUT NOW.