Back surgery meant Petra Mead, 54, was on sick leave for nine months last year. But in May, she still headlines this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö with Hollywood star Malin Akerman (45).
She may be best known in Norway for her role in the comedy series “Bonusfamilien”, but in Sweden, Petra Mede is very popular as a presenter and comedian.
She had to cancel her previous stint as presenter of “Skal vi danse” – or “Let's Dance” as it is called in Swedish – due to back problems.
She also had to cancel several of her solo shows.
She recently said this on the talk show “Karina Bergfeldt” on SVT.
Aftonbladet It also reproduced the same problem.
Read also: Malin Akerman and Petra Meade will host the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö
-This time it was really bad. Very Urgent. So I had to cancel the scrub and trunk. I've been on sick leave, and I've only ever been on sick leave once before – thirty years ago. But this time it was not possible to pretend that the situation would improve on its own. “I have now had surgery and I am fine again,” says Petra Medi on the programme.
For a long time, she was in doubt about whether she should have the operation, which resulted in her remaining bedridden, so to speak, throughout her nine-month sick leave.
– But now I don't have many years left, so now I have to start working. Then I thought what the hell, I'll take a chance and have the procedure done. “It worked,” she says.
This is the third time that SVT has trusted Petra Mede as presenter and host of the Eurovision Song Contest. It also hosted the last time the international final was held in Malmö, in 2013, and in Stockholm three years later it shared the host role with former Eurovision winner Måns Zelmerlöw.
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