Kathy Burke is an English actor, comedian, and director who achieved fame for appearing in sketch shows from the late 80s. She appeared in several films and television shows in the 80s and 90s, including Sid and Nancy, This Year’s Love, and Gimme Gimme Gimme. Burke’s role in 1997’s Nil by Mouth earned her the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival and a BAFTA nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
She took a break from acting to work as a theater director, but returned to film in the 2011 movie Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
This piece will look at Burke’s love life. We can confirm that she isn’t married.
Kathy always wanted a husband and children but the right man never came along
“It’s sad that I haven’t got a husband and kids – that’s something I would really love,” Kathy told the Daily Record in a 2000 interview. Fast forward twenty years and Kathy is yet to find her soulmate. The dream of having biological children has evaporated as she has already experienced menopause.
In the Channel 4 documentary series All Woman, Kathy talked about feeling isolated because she hated being a woman during menopause. However, she doesn’t regret not having children. She had the opportunities to do so, but she chose not to. She said:
“I went through moody broody… well, I met one person and I thought ‘if I am going to have a child with anybody it is going to be with this guy.’ Anyway it didn’t happen because he had a girlfriend and I tried not to sleep with people if they had girlfriends. It was also really telling because I obviously didn’t want it desperately because I would have made it happen.”
Kathy might have lost the opportunity to have children, but she isn’t giving up on finding a husband. She definitely has a type as she told The Times, “I fancy intellectual men.” Burke is content with waiting until the right one comes along. She told the Daily Record two decades ago, “If I’m 75 and he knocks on my door, I hope he’s worth the wait.”
Kathy engaged in a spell of promiscuity after losing her virginity at the age of 22
Despite pressure from her peers, Kathy held on to her virginity till the age of 22. She had plenty of opportunities to give in, but the thought of sex terrified her. However, at the age of 20, she started feeling like virginity was a stigma that she needed to get rid of. Two years later, she lost her virginity to someone she didn’t have feelings for. She told The Times:
“It was important that when I did lose my virginity, it was to someone I wasn’t in love with. When it happened, it was right time and the right place and the best thing was that he didn’t know that I didn’t feel much for him… I find it easier to cop off with someone if I’m not interested in them.”
Kathy’s first sexual experience set the tone for the rest of her 20s, which were jammed with sexual escapades with men she didn’t want to get into relationships with. Burke made a conscious effort to distance herself from any serious relationship. She added:
“The men I’ve been out with have been lovely. I’m the one with the problem. I make sure that nothing can get started in the first place.”
Burke’s desire to settle down crept in as she got into her thirties. She has felt ready for a long-term relationship since the age of 35. However, she told The Guardian in 2019, she is perfectly content being single.