Barbara Windsor: 'I knew having five abortions was wrong'

Dame Barbara Windsor has opened up about the difficult decisions she made early on in her life and has said that she knew that having five abortions was “wrong”.

The legendary actress, 79, has been married three times but never had children and she revealed in her 2001 autobiography that she underwent three of the procedures to terminate a foetus in the early stages of pregnancy before she was 21.

Now, looking back, the ‘Carry On’ star thinks that she knew it wasn’t right that she didn’t take her pregnancies to full term and have kids.

Barbara made the controversial comments when she addressed her five abortions and speaking about her decisions, she said: “I knew it was wrong, against what you should do.”

However, Babs doesn’t regret not having children because her own mother, Rose, drummed it into her that she wasn’t maternal and she was never shown the caring qualities of a maternalistic mother.

She said: “I consider myself to be a warm and lovely person but I never had any maternal feelings. Neither did my mother, so that message was constantly fed to me as a child.”

Barbara – born Barbara Ann Deeks in 1937 – wed Scott Mitchell in 2000 but was married twice before, to gangster Ronnie Knight from 1964-1985 and Stephen Hollings from 1986-1995, and insists she repeatedly made mistakes in her life because her mum was terrible at giving advice.

She told The Sun newspaper: “My mother never told me anything about the facts of life. It was ridiculous. I’d make a mistake then go straight on and do it again. I was so naive.”

And the ‘Carry On’ legend admits Scott has helped her to deal with her “emotional baggage”

She added: “I’ve never had therapy but Scott and I talk a lot and I’ve worked a lot of things out about myself — particularly that I’m a people-pleaser who can never say no to anyone.”

The former ‘EastEnders’ star’s life will be retold in a 90minute biopic set to air this weekend.

Jaime Winstone will play the young version of Barbara when she first enters the world of showbiz at the age of just 13, while Samantha Spiro portrays the older version through her ‘Carry On’ years and then right up to her time in ‘EastEnders’.

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