Linda Lusardi says coronavirus was so bad she prayed she wouldn't wake up

LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 12:  (EMBARGOED FOR PUBLICATION IN UK TABLOID NEWSPAPERS UNTIL 48 HOURS AFTER CREATE DATE AND TIME. MANDATORY CREDIT PHOTO BY DAVE M. BENETT/GETTY IMAGES REQUIRED)  Linda Lusardi arrives at the TRIC Television and Radio Industries Club Awards at The Grosvenor House Hotel on March 12, 2013 in London, England.  (Photo by Dave M. Benett/Getty Images)
Linda Lusardi arrives at the TRIC Television and Radio Industries Club Awards in 2013 (Dave M. Benett/Getty Images)

Linda Lusardi has told how she felt so ill with the coronavirus that at one point she prayed she wouldn’t wake up.

The former Page 3 model, 61, and her husband Sam Kane contracted the illness last month and the star posted a message on Twitter at the time saying they had “never felt this ill, EVER”.

Lusardi is now on the mend after spending ten days in hospital.

Read more: Linda Lusardi battling back from ‘death’s door’

Opening up about her battle, she told The Sun she felt terrible in the days leading up to her being admitted.

“Your head hurts, your brain hurts and you feel like an elephant is sitting on you,” she said.

Entertainer Bruce Forsyth and model Linda Lusardi presenting the BBC television show 'Bruce Foryth's Easter Show', February 26th 1991. (Photo by Don Smith/Radio Times/Getty Images)
Entertainer Bruce Forsyth and model Linda Lusardi presenting the BBC television show 'Bruce Foryth's Easter Show', February 26th 1991. (Photo by Don Smith/Radio Times/Getty Images)

“I remember crawling to the bathroom putting my face on the tile floor, and then almost trying to make myself sick just to get a light relief for five minutes afterwards.I was leaning over the edge of the bed coughing and spitting into a bucket.”

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Lusardi said it got to the stage “where both of us were praying we wouldn’t wake up because it was so bad”.

Lusardi and her husband were taken to a hospital in Middlesex where it was confirmed they had the coronavirus.

Linda Lusardi and her husband Sam Kane attending the The Krays: Dead Man Walking film premiere at Genesis Cinema, East London.
Linda Lusardi and her husband Sam Kane attending the The Krays: Dead Man Walking film premiere

The former pin-up said at one point she asked a doctor whether she was going to make it, and “just burst into tears” when he said that he could not guarantee anything.

However, the pair turned the corner and started to recover, with Kane being released first and Lusardi following a few days later.

The star found fame as a glamour model before branching out into acting.

She competed in Dancing On Ice in 2008 and Celebrity MasterChef in 2011.

Read more: Gary Lineker self-isolates after son displays coronavirus symptoms

Lusardi and Kane married in 1998 and have two grown-up children, Jack and Lucy.

Other celebrities to have tested positive for the coronavirus include Luther star Idris Elba, Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks and his actress wife Rita Wilson and former Bond girl Olga Kurylenko.