The Absolutely Fabulous actress recently opened up about her own mortality.

Joanna Lumley
Inside Joanna Lumley’s health as star says ‘don’t have much time left’ (Image: Getty)

Dame Joanna Lumley has been candid about her health over the years. The actress, 79, shared her “time is coming quite soon” after suffering health setbacks over the years, including neurological disorder prosopagnosia, also known as “face blindness”.

The actress and presenter has been gracing our screens for over five decades – from playing a Bond girl in the 1960s, to a spy in the New Avengers in the ’70s and a drunken Patsy Stone in the ’90s.

Express.co.uk takes an inside look into the star’s health woes after the small-screen star opened up about death.

In a recent interview, Joanna said “I haven’t got much time left”, revealing that several of her friends are “beginning to leave” her. As she now approaches 80, she is determined to live life to the full and has imparted words of wisdom to those struggling with ageing.

“As you near the top of the hill, you suddenly think, ‘Gosh, there’s not all that amount of time left.’ My time must be coming quite soon, and I don’t want to have wasted a minute of being on this beautiful planet,” Joanna told Vernon Kay on BBC Radio 2.

“I used to panic when I was young, but as I’ve got older, I’ve started to live day to day.”

She also opened up about suffering from “face blindness”, saying: “It’s called Prosopagnosia. I have to know who people are, I have to know in advance. I always say ‘please tell me who’s going to be there’ then I can match the name to the thing.

I’d look at somebody and then I would shut my eyes and see if I could see their face in my head. And I couldn’t.”

"The Beatles Anthology
Joanna Lumley opened up about her own mortality (Image: Getty)

Joanna also admitted she is a chain smoker thanks to playing cigarette-lover Patsy Stone for years habit and will never quit.

While filming, she regularly snuck off for cigarette breaks, with director Mika Simmons finding her out in the streets of London’s Paddington, enjoying a smoke during rush hour.

However, Joanna credits a vegetarian diet with keeping her fit for the most part over the years.