logo
episode-header-image
Jul 2022
45m 29s

My husband thought I was an imposter

Bbc World Service
About this episode

Abi Morgan’s husband woke from a coma and didn’t recognise her.

Abi is a playwright and screenwriter based in London, and she'd made a name for herself writing successful and often highly emotional films and TV Series such as The Iron Lady, Shame, and The Split.

In 2019 her life took such a strange and unfamiliar turn, she says it was almost like she'd landed in one of her scripts. Her partner Jacob was ill and put into a medically induced coma. Eight months later, he woke up, and no longer recognised Abi as his wife.

Abi has written a book about her experiences called This Is Not a Pity Memoir.

Presenter: Emily Webb Producer: Harry Graham

Up next
Feb 9
I bought Macclesfield FC while drunk and it saved my life
Rob Smethurst bought a bankrupt football club while his life was unravelling – then they went on to make football history and save him in the process.Entrepreneur Rob Smethurst never planned to become the owner of a football club. In the grip of alcohol addiction, and on a four-d ... Show More
42m 12s
Feb 2
Colm Tóibín: How an Irish boy with a stammer found his voice
Colm Tóibín is a celebrated Irish writer, but as a child words didn't come easily. Navigating grief as a boy when his father died, he developed a stammer. Instead of talking, Colm watched and listened, collecting stories that wove their way into his novels. He's won a string of a ... Show More
41m 17s
Jan 26
The gay Kenyan boyband star who refused to be defeated
Willis Chimano is one of Kenya’s biggest pop stars. With the boyband Sauti Sol, he’s won a string of awards and even danced with President Barack Obama. But behind the success, Chimano had a secret: being gay in a country where gay sex is criminalised and people who identify as L ... Show More
36m 33s
Recommended Episodes
Mar 2023
George Eliot and married life
<p>George Eliot was a leading novelist who scandalised Victorian society by eloping to Germany with a married man and living in unlawful conjugal bliss. She dedicated her books to ‘her husband’ and wrote of 'this double life, which helps me to feel and think with double strength' ... Show More
41m 55s
Jul 2023
Adam Kay, writer
Adam Kay is a writer whose memoir This is Going to Hurt; Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor won the Book of the Year prize at the National Book Awards and has sold over three million copies. It was adapted for television as a BBC series that won four BAFTAs this year, including Ad ... Show More
36m 55s
Feb 2022
The ‘Ham Sandwich’ Effect
<p>Before Andrew Limbong went off to college, his mother cautioned him about the dire consequences he would face if he hugged a girl. Andrew grew up in a strict Christian household, and his parents are Indonesian immigrants, so they never spoke about sex at home. When Andrew was ... Show More
19m 40s
Nov 2022
No More Hiding
<p>An A-student, a striving employee and a loyal friend, Terri Cheney is the sort of person who seems to have it all together. But, beneath her glowing facade, she faced the highs and lows of bipolar disorder. She kept her mental illness separated from her personal and profession ... Show More
19m 24s
Jul 2022
A Mother's Secret
<p>Ayad Akhtar’s parents met in Pakistan in the early ’60s, when they were both medical students and “ridiculously attractive” — or so their friends say. Despite having a love marriage (against the wishes of their parents), theirs was rocky from the start.</p><p>“By the time I wa ... Show More
17m 3s
Jul 2021
S11, Ep8 How to Fail: Maggie O'Farrell
For our season finale, I bring you the glorious Maggie O'Farrell. She is one of my favourite authors, and her books include the highly acclaimed novels After You'd Gone, The Hand That First Held Mine, Instructions for a Heatwave and the bestselling memoir I Am, I Am, I Am. Her mo ... Show More
55m 2s
Apr 2021
The Talented Mr Ripley author, Patricia Highsmith
<p>Director Jonathan Kent was friends with Patricia Highsmith. He'd been playing Tom Ripley for a tv show, and staying in the hotel suite next door to her. She took a shine to him. Now he repays the debt with this revealing and intriguing programme to celebrate a hundred years s ... Show More
27m 39s
Jul 2020
Emily Mortimer
Emily Mortimer (Lars and the Real Girl, Shutter Island, The Newsroom) is an English actress and screenwriter. Emily chats with the Armchair Expert about her newfound realization of her social anxiety, her mother's patronization and overcoming a lazy eye in her first big movie. Da ... Show More
1h 12m