Brutal reason Joanna Lumley was dumped by Rod Stewart and her celebrity crush

Joanna Lumley is one of those stars who could well be considered a national treasure thanks to her efforts, not just in entertainment as a star of Broadway and hit TV show Absolutely Fabulous, but also as a humanitarian having done tireless work for human rights and animal welfare groups like Survival International.

Along the way Joanna has also had some high profile relationships with some huge stars in their own right. These include screenwriter Jeremy Lloyd, who penned Allo Allo, and even popstar Rod Stewart, although not all of these ended on great terms. As well as relationships she's also admitted to some relatable celebrity crushes over the years too.

As well as this, Joanna, 75, has actually spoken out before on her struggles with marriage, dubbing the institution "staggeringly difficult" having seen her first marriage to Lloyd collapse within a year of marrying back in 1970. She has even suggested that had she not met her current husband Steve Barlow, and opera conductor, she probably wouldn't have ever married again.

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Speaking on Captive Minds' That's After Life! podcast with Dame Esther Rantzen & Adrian Mills Joanna said: "The thing is marriage is staggeringly difficult to accomplish. I can't remember who said it to me – it might have been my mother – who said, ‘Don't marry somebody you think you could be married to and you love them very much, marry somebody who you literally can't live without'."

Joanna and husband Steve, 68, have been married since 1986 when they met through mutual friends. They met again at someone's wedding where Joanna had “the strongest feeling we should be together” but their paths diverged again as Steve got married to someone else. But six years later again he was single and they finally met over tea just the two of them, marrying two years later.

Before then though Joanna had seen a few different people as well as her first marriage, admitting she had a huge crush on Elvis Presley, something she actually told to his wife Priscilla. She told the podcast: “Elvis, he didn't know it, but he was obviously waiting for me. I've talked to Priscilla about this. I said, ‘Do you know if he'd met me, your life would have been very different?'"

She also had a relationship with North London popstar Rod Stewart. The two had a whirlwind romance in 1973 while the singer was recording his fifth album Smiler. He told the Express in 2010 that she was "a wonderful woman, she was so upper-crust. I was actually afraid to talk because Joanna talked awfully wonderfully." He added to this in 2012 speaking to the Sun, explaining she was a “wonderful, wonderful girl” but “far too posh for Rod.”

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