Gemma Collins breaks down in tears after discovering 'schizophrenic' grandmother's tragic life

Gemma Collins broke down in tears after discovering the tragic past of her maternal grandmother on Who Do You Think You Are?

The former The Only Way Is Essex star appeared on the BBC show to try and find more about her mum Joan’s side of the family. At the start of the programme, she said: “My mum was fostered. Why was she left at the hospital? Why did they not try and come back for her?

“She never talks about it. I just think it’s too painful for her to go there. It will be nice to know where my mum is from and just put all the pieces together.”

Speaking about her past for the first time, Joan tells Gemma she went into foster care at just two weeks old, but did see her real mum – also called Joan – three times throughout her life. But the last time was when she was a teenager.

Getting emotional, Joan said the first time she properly met her mother was when she was four, then again when she was seven. This time she went to her auntie's house, where she met her cousin, Christine. Recalling the last time they met, Joan said: “When I was a teenager my mum wrote me a letter and asked me to take her a packet of cigarettes. And that was it, I went in and said hello, not seen her for years, had a cup of tea and said goodbye.”

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Gemma said: “I know she’s your mum but she don’t sound like one of us, because we wouldn’t have done that.” Her mum replied: “Times were different I suppose, who knows what went on back in the day.” The only other thing Joan knew about her mother – Gemma’s grandmother – is she was “in different hospitals at a young age”.

This led Gemma to visit a former asylum in Epsom in Surrey, who confirmed her gran had voluntarily spent eight months there as a 13-year-old girl in 1951. Record revealed she was then re-admitted to hospital and detained ‘for her own safety’ at the age of 17 just after Gemma’s mum Joan was born in 1955. Her diagnosis at this stage was ‘chronic schizophrenia’.

Detailing what her time would have been like at the hospital, an expert said Gemma’s gran would have been on a locked ward, under constant supervision with no privacy. There is even a chance she may have had to share a toothbrush with other patients.

Visiting another expert, Gemma learns that what doctors thought of as ‘schizophrenia’ in the 1950s is not how it would be diagnosed now. Dr Claire Hilton said she thought the label was “a bit of a red herring” and said Gemma’s grandmother was likely forced to give her baby up because she was an unmarried teenage mother, which was “very frowned upon at the time”.

Asked if her mum was taken away or given away, Dr Hilton told Gemma: “Your grandmother went into care when she was about six months pregnant. That would have been when the pregnancy was showing. And the socials ideals at the time was that women would get married before they had children. It was very much frowned on by society. You’re not going to be able to bring that child up on your own. Young, single women were not given much choice in the matter. They were told what to do, even people without mental illness.”

Speaking after this bombshell, Gemma said: “This information upsets me because their actions left my mum feeling like she wasn’t good enough because her mum didn’t want her. And actually today, reading between the lines, my mum was taken away from her mother and her mother did try to see her. I can’t wait to tell my mum.”

Though Gemma’s grandma Joan passed away at the age of 61, there was some good news later on in the show. Producers managed to trace surviving members on Gemma’s mum’s side of the family – and she was reunited with her mum’s cousin Christine, who was able to share more family photos with her. “Now my mum can close some doors on everything she’s thought over the years,” she added.

*Who Do You Think You Are? is available to watch on BBC iPlayer now

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