Joanna Page: I was breastfeeding on set! How to have a career and children
Happy Place
Fearne Cotton
4.6 • 15.2K Ratings
🗓️ 22 September 2025
⏱️ 77 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Gavin and Stacey’s Joanna Page didn’t want kids, until she suddenly did at 35! In this chat with Fearne, Joanna explains how she had to bring her baby on set in order to keep working as a new mum, and why she ultimately decided to focus on family over career.
They chat about why it’s ok to do average – or even shit – work sometimes, and why perfection doesn’t need to be the goal. Joanna’s noticed on set that younger women seem to have much higher self-worth than she had at their age; what can we learn from their assertiveness?
Plus, which Hollywood actor did Joanna fart in front of, and how did the Love Actually sex scenes work behind the scenes?
Joanna’s new book, Lush, is out on September 25th.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Fern Cotton and this is Happy Place, the show that wants you to live your life on your own terms. |
| 0:07.4 | Today, I'm chatting to Joanna Page. |
| 0:09.9 | I think because me and James got married so young, I was about 25. |
| 0:14.4 | I don't want to have kids. I've never particularly liked kids. |
| 0:17.0 | And when I was 35, I genuinely did suddenly wake up one morning and just feel this just |
| 0:23.2 | yearning and go oh my god I have to have a baby and even though I desperately wanted to have a baby |
| 0:29.0 | when I found out I was pregnant I felt really quite distasteful about the whole thing I remember early on |
| 0:35.2 | walking into like mammas and papas and looking around and just being like |
| 0:39.8 | fuck this for a laugh. No thank you. How are you all lovelies? I hope you're good and well. |
| 0:45.4 | If you're not, hopefully this really joyful chat you're about to hear will perk you up. I'm good. |
| 0:50.9 | I like this time of year. I like getting all organised and getting my shit together. |
| 0:55.7 | It's been very not together because I've been having my kitchen redecorated recently. |
| 1:01.3 | And the thing I've realised is that sinks are really important. |
| 1:07.4 | Not having a sink for the last month has been an absolute fucking nightmare quite frankly |
| 1:12.4 | every time you go to fill up the kettle oh there's no tap go to wash your hands there's no tap |
| 1:17.0 | go to wash up in the bath i've been washing up in the bath i borrowed a crate from a supermarket to put my |
| 1:23.6 | dirty plates in i'm telling you too much you don't need to know this. But anyway, it's a palava. |
| 1:28.5 | So when I get that sink back in action, I am going to be so organised, so on it, so ready for life. |
| 1:35.7 | So that's what's been going on in my life. Hopefully more exciting things have been happening for you. |
| 1:40.1 | As I said, this chat will really give you a spring in your step. |
| 1:44.9 | Joanna Page or Joe, as she insisted I call her, is just an absolute gem. |
| 1:50.3 | You'll of course know her from Gavin and Stacey and massive films like Love Actually. |
... |
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