How Gemma Collins helped ‘heal’ her mum Joan after decades of family secrets – and why her death ends a lifelong dream

TOWIE fans are grieving the death of Gemma Collins’ beloved mum Joan whose close bond with her famous daughter helped her overcome numerous health scares and tragedies after being abandoned as a two-week-old baby. Joan, 70, passed away this week surrounded by family, leaving I’m A Celebrity star Gemma’s heart “shattered into a million pieces”. Gemma Collins’ mum Joan has died aged 70 Credit: Instagram The mum and daughter shared a very close bond Credit: Rex It comes just two years after Gemma said she had “healed” her mum after appearing on BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are when she was able to give Joan the answers she always wanted about her troubled childhood. Gemma admitted she’d never had a conversation with her mum about her upbringing before they filmed for the BBC ancestry show. Sign up for the Showbiz newsletter Thank you! Joan was abandoned outside a hospital when she was two weeks’ old and went on to live with a foster family. She started playing truant from school in her teenage years and at 13 was sent to live in care for two months as punishment. READ MORE ON GEMMA COLLINS Joan only met her birth mum three times and never knew why she’d been given up. It meant she spent 61 years of her life believing she had been rejected by her mother. However, thanks to the ancestry show, Gemma was able to find out the truth after tracking down her grandmother’s health records which showed she was in two psychiatric hospitals – once when she 13 and then again when she was 17, just after her mum was born. She was told she had chronic schizophrenia, but experts suggested diagnosis of the condition was very different in the 1950s and could have meant she had autism or developmental disorders. Most read in Showbiz Gemma was told it was highly likely her grandmother – an unmarried teenage mother – was told she could not keep her child. Foster records also revealed that her grandmother did try and maintain some contact with her mother. While the experience helped heal decades of family secrets – Joan’s death has ended a lifelong dream for Gemma. An insider told The Sun: “Everyone who knows and loves Gemma knows her mum is her world. “She’s beyond devastated at losing her. It’s a very painful and raw time. “Being a mum has always been a dream of Gemma’s and it would have meant a great deal to her if Joan had lived to see how her journey plays out, having been through fertility struggles in recent years. Gemma had never spoken about her mum’s troubled childhood before filming the BBC show Credit: bbc Joan broke down in tears as she discussed being abandoned as a newborn Credit: bbc “It’s heartbreaking, but Joan will always live within her.” After tracking down four generations of her family, Gemma discovered her great great grandmother Thirza was the matriarch of the Essex family. Gemma said: “Do you know what’s touching about this – and it brings tears to my eyes – my mum is a real powerhouse in our family. “She changed the course of our lives. She always pushed me and my brother to do really well so she must have had a lot of Thirza in her.” Gemma then got emotional as she discussed the idea of her naming her future daughter Thirza. She told the cameras: “I really admire her strength. “I feel very connected after all this and so if I ever had a child or a little girl, I’d have to call her Thirza. How sweet is that? “It’s bringing tears to my eyes.” Gemma added: “The Thirza line is where I get my fighting spirit from. “That’s where my mum gets her spirit from. “She was the OG and I’m the GC of Essex.” Most recently, Gemma has focused on being a step-mum to her long-term fiance Rami Hawash’s son Tristan. Gemma – who suffers from a low number of AMH hormones, meaning she also has a limited number of eggs available, and also suffers from polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which directly affects the ovaries – said last year: “It’s really not difficult to love a child unconditionally. “I’m loving this phase of my life having time to be the best version of me, embrace your children this half term don’t moan enjoy it remember there’s always someone who doesn’t have what you got. Let children be children.” Comment now