TV presenter Jasmine Harman is best known for her mega-watt smile as she fronts C4’s A Place in the Sun – but behind her sunny personality, she hides a secret sadness about her mum.
Jasmine’s mum is a hoarder, whose condition was provoked by a devastating family tragedy.
Here’s the truth about Jasmine’s family history.
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Jasmine Harman mum – the tragedy
A Place in the Sun presenter Jasmine Harman has revealed that her beloved mum became a hoarder after her dad was murdered.
Jasmine has taken part in several TV documentaries trying to help her mum.
But it was only recently that she confessed the root of her mum’s problem.
As reported in The Sun, Jasmine’s maternal grandfather, Evangelos, was shot and killed at the age of 32 in 1958.
Jasmine’s mum Vasoulla was just a child at the time – and never got over the tragedy.
No one was ever charged with the crime, which happened during a time of political unrest in Cyprus.
Vasoulla and her mum Maria fled their native Cyprus after the killing, and came to the UK – where Jasmine was born.
Vasoulla subsequently developed mental health problems and become a hoarder.
Jasmine Harman mum – the hoarder
Vasoulla remains a hoarder to this day, and believes the problem started when she was just six.
Vasoulla, who is separated from Jasmine’s father and lives with her youngest son Cameron, 23, in East London, reveals she hoards “for security and for fear of loss”.
She also admits she hoards as a “barricade against danger” and because of the culture shock she suffered coming to the UK.
Daughter Jasmine has also admitted she felt “deeply ashamed and embarrassed about” her mum’s condition for years.
She says: “Even when I started work on A Place in the Sun it was my biggest fear people would find out about my mum’s home and how I grew up.
“I was mortified.”
Jasmine kept her mum’s condition a secret for many years, but now talks about it openly.
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My Hoarder Mum & Me
Jasmine and her mum Vasoulla featured in the C4 documentary My Hoarder Mum & Me, which first aired in 2018.
Viewers saw the TV presenter attempting to help her mother clear more than 30 years of clutter in her five-bedroom house in London.
The house was filled, literally from floor-to-ceiling, with things she can’t bear to throw out.
These included piles of old clothes, bags of toys, old newspapers, even broken bits of kitchen appliances.
Vasoulla’s bedroom is seen to be so crammed full she could no longer get in.
Instead, she is seen clearing a space on the floor of another room where she sleeps.
Jasmine tells the camera: “All through my life, I’ve felt like mum’s things are more important than me.
“I’ve tried to make her choose, and she couldn’t choose because it wasn’t a choice.
“It was compulsion she couldn’t control.”
At one point, Vasoulla’s son Cameron was forced to move out from his home as the house wasn’t considered safe for him to live in.
How old is Jasmine Harman and where is she from?
Jasmine Isabelle Harman was born on November 15, 1975 in Hackney, London.
She is currently aged 45.
As well as her Greek Cypriot mum, Jasmine’s dad is British.
Jasmine has six younger siblings, so home life was always hectic.
She has said: “Even though my parents separated and now have younger children, we have always been close.”
Is Jasmine Harman married?
Jasmine is married to television cameraman Jon Boast.
They tied the knot in 2009. Jasmine is also a mum!
She and Jon have two children together, a daughter called Joy, seven, and five-year-old son Albion.
Watch Jasmine Harman present A Place in the Sun on weekdays at 3pm on C4.
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