Ruthie Henshall is the castaway on Desert Island Discs on R4 at 11.15 today. It's not available on Listen Again, so if you miss it, you'll have to wait until Friday morning.

Well she seems to be baring all both on and off stage these days! Very juicy revelations...she's going to be in the headlines in the next few days.

That's very sensitively put I must say!

I missed the interview today but am a huge fan so have a good idea of what the 'revelations' were and I wouldn't describe them as 'juicy'. I believe that she is bearing up well considering everything and wish her well and my thoughts are with her. She is the best that we have and I believe we should look after her.

My goodness, what happened?

What an insensitive comment! I am so proud of Ruthie foor how open she is being, I wh I could have been about some of the things that have happened to me. She is a wonderfu, talented and amazing women and deserves a lot more respect! I understand that she choses to talk about everything openly but I don't feel that it's right to discuss it on a public forum. It's her life and her business, if one of your friends started discussing their issues with you would you then go and post it on the internet?
Rant over

She commented on it in public and it's all over the news. I'm not judging her and I fully agree with you about her being talented. It's just that I was already in shock after seeing her topless on stage last week, something I never expected to see.

oh pls! la henshall chose to broadcast tittle tattle - if she didnt want it discussed she should have kept her mouth shut

Wow, people really are getting very worked up about this ar'nt they. I'm sure she was not looking for sympathy and as a public figure I'm sure Ruthie is more than aware that the tabloids and the internet will latch on to anything she says which can be construed as mildly scandelous so discussing it is fair game in my opinion.
I think that comments like "tittle tattle" and "kept her mouth shut" are very aggressive and quite unnessesary. I'm pretty sure that talking about 5 year on/off relationship is not tittle tattle, if she had once had a drunken snog'n'grope with a royal then that would be different.

Bottom line, chill out and play nice.

You might not have liked the phraseology, duddersmonster, but the previous comment was quite correct. Ruthie Henshall hasn't been taken advantage of here. It was her choice to talk! SHE put it in the public domain. You can't blame anyone for taking about it, or the media for picking up on it. It is not "not nice" to recognise that.

But I haven't actually heard the show mself. Did try to do the "listen again" thing, but it wasn't available. ls that just me, and/or a glitch, or has it been stopped? And if it has been stopped, I wonder if the repeat will still be aired?

As someone who knew next-to-nothing about her off-stage life, I found the programme fascinating. How much of that stuff about her problems with depression, and her sister's death, were known publicly before? It was all new to me. I do think it's very good that she can be open about this sort of thing.



Desert Island Discs is never available on the "listen again" thing. Something to do with rights issues with the music, maybe? I've no idea why, but it never is. The repeat should be on as usual.

I did say in my opening post that it's not available on Listen Again. It never has been - nothing to do with this particular edition. Supposedly it's a rights issue about the format of the actual programme and its ownership by Roy Plomley's (the original host) widow but nobody seems quite sure. The music must be an issue too. It will be repeated at 9.00am on Friday.

You can find a list of what records and book she chose here

I agree that Ruthie is amazing to speak so openly about everything and that she won't have done it in the search for sympathy, I can only imagine that she will have done it in the hope of encouraging others to do the same.

I don't, however, agree that it is wrong to 'discsuss it on a public forum', no one is doing it out of any kind of malice and from what I can see, no one has gone into great detail about everything she has been through. I agree that she deserves more respect than she has got from one or two posters but on the whole, I can't see anything wrong with what has been said so far.

I don't personally think that one of us discussing these types of issues with a friend is the same as publishing interviews, speaking on several tv programmes and 2 radio shows! Ruthie has quite enough experience to know that what is said is going to be discussed, she is not silly.

I have never been very keen on Ruthie Henshall as a performer, although I do appreciate that she is very talented. I didn't read any of the articles in the press following the broadcast, but I did not get the impression that she was seeking sympathy from the listeners, when I listened to it. It was quite right and also quite brave for her to talk openly about her horrible experiences as a child and how they, as well as the recent suicide of her sister, have affected her life. The programme is not just about the choice of records but also about the life of the guest who is always very sensitively interviewed by Kirsty Young. In most cases Ruthie's choice was closely related to what has happened in her own life. I am sure that many listeners will have recognised those experiences themselves, and at the end of the broadcast there was a phone number given for anyone who had been affected in the same way. Trust the trashy press to make more out of it than need be, simply because she is a celebrity. Well, I suppose it is a break from their other boring gossip about Gary Glitter and Jade Goody.

I agree. I found her account deeply moving.

Sebastian