Actress Patsy Kensit underwent an emergency hysterectomy earlier this year after two massive tumours were discovered by doctors.

The Emmerdale star said medics told her she would need to have her womb removed, just two years after getting a tumour removed in June 2011.

In an excerpt from her new autobiography Absolute Beginner, printed in the Sunday Mirror, Kensit tells how she was convinced she would die, writing, "I honestly thought, this is it. I was convinced my luck had run out. I tried to prepare myself for the worst... I put my head in my hands and started sobbing. 'God, why is this happening again?' I said out loud."

The 45-year old described her relief after receiving the results of her biopsy, recalling, "One morning a letter arrived. I took a deep breath, braced myself and ripped it open.

Patsy was previously married to Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher

"I scanned the text quickly, then sat on my hall stairs and cried with relief - the tumours weren't cancerous and I'd been given the all-clear. I was just so relieved and so grateful I didn't have cancer... I haven't once regretted having a hysterectomy - but I did have a little period of mourning for that part of myself.

"It was almost like saying goodbye to my youth, and it was a very definite marker that I was moving into a new and very different phase of my life."

The star has two children James (20) whose dad is Simple Minds Jim Kerr. Her second child is Lennon (14) whose father is Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher.