Actor Alex Kingston has opened up about her uterine cancer diagnosis, revealing she “wasn’t reading the signs” from her body.
The 62-year-old ER and Doctor Who star shared the news last year in an interview with The Independent, which took place during her stint on Strictly Come Dancing in October 2025.
Kingston, who underwent a hysterectomy and radiation therapy, said her body “was trying to tell” her that ‘something was very wrong” – but she ignored the warning symptoms as she’s “such a positive person”.
The actor said she assumed “the bloating and weight gain, or injuries not healing properly” were because of her age. She previously told The Independent she experienced these signs for years, but didn’t get checked until she “started haemorrhaging on stage” while performing a play on stage.
“I thought, ‘This is what it’s like to be in your 60s, and it’s just part and parcel of getting older’,” she told Prima magazine.
She continued: “I hadn’t realised that uterine cancer was a cancer that didn’t get much airtime. I think it’s probably because on the whole, it is a cancer where if you recognise something is wrong, your body is able to tell you. And if it’s caught early enough, it is survivable.”
Kingston said she “never, ever went down the cancer road, so it was a shock”.
The actor added that she was initially reluctant to speak about her diagnosis and “kept it quiet for a long time”.
“I’m quite a private person and I felt, ‘Why should I talk about my cancer?’ and also on Strictly, I thought, ‘I don’t want my journey to be about my sickness.’
“I wanted it to be about going forwards and life affirmation. But then I realised when I started to get responses from people that, actually, this is important.
She continued: “If nothing else, it’s important to encourage people that if their body is behaving in a slightly unusual way, don’t just write it off as being old or suddenly becoming gluten intolerant.
“It could be something else and to go and have it checked. So I feel now that it was a good thing that I opened up about it.”
Kingston also responded to a “mean-spirited” comment made by judge Craig Revel Horwood about her performance in the Halloween episode, when he referred to her Salsa to “Horny” by Hot ‘n’ Juicy and Mousse T as looking like a woman experiencing “a midlife crisis”.
The comment was widely criticised, but Kingston, who was partnered with professional dancer Johannes Radebe said she was not aware of it at the time.
She said: “When I did the Strictly Halloween ‘Horny’ number, I wasn’t fully aware of the scathing critique Craig had given me about looking like a woman who is having a midlife crisis.
“I didn’t realise that he was saying it or know about the follow-through in terms of people saying, ‘That’s just outrageous, how dare you say something like that?’”
“It was a little mean-spirited for Craig to say that, and also I just felt like it’s exactly the opposite of what I’m trying to advocate.
“It’s like, no, if you want to dance and swing a devil’s tail around and you’re in your 90s, do it. I mean, this is your life. So live it!”
She added: “I’ve never spent time thinking about my age.
“I know I’m getting older, but I do try to just live in the moment. And I’ve never felt like I have to subscribe to the norms or the rules that have been set about how one should behave at a certain age.
Kingston finished in eighth place in the BBC competition. The April 2026 issue of Prima is now on sale.
Additional reporting by Agencies
