The Wiggles' Emma Watkins reveals health battle: 'I was very unwell'

The Wiggles’ Emma Watkins has revealed she has battled with severe endometriosis, which would sometimes leave her in so much pain that she would be ‘bedridden’ while on tour.

Speaking on the Western Sydney Health Check podcast, Emma explained her experience with the painful chronic condition, which according to Health Direct “causes tens of thousands of hospitalisations every year”.

Emma said while her symptoms began in her teens, she only took action to help manage the condition after joining The Wiggles.

“It was maybe eight years into the touring and being on the road constantly and filming back-to-back that my periods actually started to run into each other and the bleeding was actually non-stop,” she said.

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“And at that point, that’s when I thought something was up. But I didn’t actually know it had anything to do with endometriosis, I still hadn’t heard the word. I didn’t even know that there was such a thing.”

Emma said that while on tour, she was sometimes “bedridden” because she was in so much pain from her endometriosis and would often be “on the floor of the dressing room” because she couldn’t move.

“I kind of let the touring cover up for the fact that I was very unwell,” she continued.

“Losing so much blood, I started to become really fatigued during the shows. It was hard for me to find control in my life, or a controlled environment, where I could see if it was me or it was just a lot of shows.”

Emma had an ultrasound and doctors discovered that she had stage four endometriosis. She underwent surgery to remove as much of it as possible and for two months after that, she couldn’t drive and found it hard to even lift a kettle to make herself a cup of tea.

She said she felt like she needed to address the fact that she was away from the stage for so long as there was speculation at the time that perhaps it was due to her being pregnant, which she said couldn’t have been further from the truth.

Now, Emma has urged women to go get checked and put their health first so they can get the help they need to manage their pain.

Emma's candid chat comes just one month after she revealed that she is engaged to her bandmate Oliver Brian.

“When life gets more sparkly," she captioned a post showing off her diamond engagement ring.

Emma was previously married to Purple Wiggle Lachlan Gillespie for three years but the pair have remained firm friends, with Lachlan being one of the first to comment on her Instagram post, writing: “love you guys”.

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