Taxi star Marilu Henner has opened up about living with a rare condition that means she can remember 'every day' of her life.
The actress, 72, spoke to BBC Woman's Hour hostNuala McGovern about havingHighly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM), as well as her role in new stage playMad Woman of the West which comes to London this month.
Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory, also known as hyperthymesia, is a brain condition which gives people extraordinary powers of recall. Those with HSAM can remember nearly every detail of every day of their lives.
The extremely rare condition only affects around 100 people in the world, including the Chicago-born star, who said having it meant she remembered 'everything I was doing' nearly 'every day of my life'.
While some might deem it a superpower, the redheaded siren - who played the beloved hottie Elaine O'Connor Nardo on Taxi from 1978 until 1983 - said for her, it has been a 'blessing and a curse'.
Taxi star Marilu Henner (pictured) has opened up about living with rare condition, Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM)Those with HSAM can remember nearly every detail of every day of their lives
The actress - who has walked down the aisle three times - joked that her razor sharp memory was a 'curse' for her husbands (Pictured with her third and current husband Michael Brown in 2016)
Speaking on her remarkable memory, she told Nuala: 'It means basically that I remember almost every single day of my life.
'You can give me any date within my lifetime and I'll tell you what day of the week it was and what I was doing on that day'.
The actress - who has walked down the aisle three times and shares sonsNicholas and Joseph with second husband Robert Lieberman - later joked that her razor sharp memory was a 'curse' for her husbands.
'You know people always say "is it a blessing or a curse?" she said.
'I always say it's a blessing for me [but] it's a curse for husband which is why I'm on my third and final... and I drive my friends crazy...'
The star - who began her career starring in the original production of Grease in 1971 - explained that living with HSAM helped her recall her most fondest memories with vivid details, including her 13th birthday and 'every Christmas'.
'It was 1965, it was a Tuesday' said the actress. 'And I had a Roaring Twenties party with all the girls in my class and it was like so much fun.
'I can remember every birthday in my life. I can do every Christmas in my life'.
The actress, 72, spoke to BBC Woman's Hour host Nuala McGovern about living with Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory
The star was married to her first husband,Frederic Forrest (pictured) from 1980 to 1982
Taken aback by her extraordinary recollections, Nuala questioned if having HSAM ever felt 'exhausting'.
She answered that it was quite the contrary and more like 'having the best most organised system... like having a computer in your brain that you can easily access' said Marilu.
Her friend and fellow actress Caroline Aaron, 71, who rose to fame starring in several Woody Allen films in the 80s and 90s as well as comedy sitcom Frasier, also appeared on Woman's Hour.
Detailing what is was like to befriend someone with HSAM, Caroline said at times it could be 'challenging', and often found herself corrected by Marilu when recalling old memories.
'When Marilu and I first became friends I would say "remember when we did such and such?" and she'd go "no we didn't do it that day we did it this day".
'So yes it's very challenging - because my memory is always being challenged because I'll remember things a little bit off date or off subject and Marilu not only remembers the date, she often remembers what she weighed on that day'.
Sheshares sons Nicholas and Joseph with her second husband Robert Lieberman (pictured together in 1993)
While some might deem it a superpower, the redheaded siren - who played the beloved hottie Elaine O'Connor Nardo on Taxi from 1978 until 1983 - said for her, it has been a 'blessing and a curse'
Her friend and fellow actress Caroline Aaron, 71, said at times dealing with Marilu's condition could be 'challenging' as she often corrected her memories
Pausing while the group laughed, she added: 'I don't keep track of that I'll tell you that!'
Marilu also recalled the time she was tested for HSAM, which included having to undergo a gruelling MRI scan. What she discovered about her brain was truly shocking.
'They tested me, they wired me, put me through an MRI,' said Marilu.
'They took 300 measurements of my brain. They found nine areas 10 times larger than the normal brain'.
Eerily, Marilu's earliest memory dates as far back as early childhood to when she was first baptised.
Speaking to ABC news in 2012, she vividly recalled the occasion in detail. She said: 'I just remember the water, and I remember the white. Whenever I go back into the memory, I'm always in my body looking out'.
Marilu poses for a portrait 1985 in Los Angeles;she has also appeared in the films Johnny Dangerously, Perfect, L.A. Story and Noises Off and become a fixture of the Hallmark Channel in the Aurora Teagarden Mysteries franchise
A scene from Taxi with Marilu alongside Danny Devito, Judd Hirsch, Tony Danza, Christopher Lloyd and Carol Kane
Of course for Marilu, one of the more useful perks of having HSAM is the gifted ability to easily remember her lines.
She added: 'I can always remember where I first read a script or what I studied or what I liked about, things like that. But definitely being an actress, I learned how to embrace my memories and celebrate them and explore them without hesitation whatsoever'.
In 2011 the Daily Mail reported thatMarilu's earliest memory was playing with her older brother in her family’s Chicago home aged one and a half.
The recollection stunned scientists, who had assumed that it was virtually impossible to recall events before the age of two.
And recently sheadmitted for the first time to DailyMail.com that she has psychic abilities.
'Because I am so quick to recognise patterns, I get images and feelings about some things,' she noted.
Marilu features in a new stage show in London called Madwomen Of The West from writer Sandra Tsing Loh. Her she is seen with her co-stars Caroline Aaron (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Brooke Adams (Days of Heaven) and Melanie Mayron (Thirtysomething)
The star then relayed an incident with her second husband, where he asked her in the middle of the night for a friend's phone number, and she rattled the number off.
The number worked, but the person who picked up the phone asked where they got this number from as it was a private number. And, yes, the person her husband wanted to talk to was there at that location.
When Marilu was asked how she knew that number that very few people had and did not belong to the woman her husband wanted to talk to, she said she didn’t know.
'I pick things up and patterns - you see it for and feel it. You know this is gonna happen'.
WHAT IS HIGHLY SUPERIOR AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY?
HSAM, or hyperthymesia, is a brain condition which gives people extraordinary powers of recall. Those with HSAM can remember nearly every detail of every day of their lives.
It is a poorly understood and rare condition - only 80 cases of hyperthymesia have been found worldwide.
Some studies have found differences in certain regions of the brain that could account for hyperthmesia.
It is also believed that certain life events and experiences can contribute to the disorder's development.
Source: Psychology Today
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She is also very careful with her diet, which at the very least can't be making her memory worse. She continued:‘Dairy products did not love me and they were bad for me so I had to stop. My biggest love was cheese and I had to give it up.
'A nutritionist told me you will not be healthy until you give up dairy. I used to eat a pound of Jarlsberg at a time as my 1,700 calorie a day diet.
'On August 15, 1979 I gave up dairy and I’ve never looked back.'
She said the reason she has been so careful with her health is because she lost her parents at a young age.
'My parents died in their 50s and I couldn’t let their deaths be in vain so I studied the human body and nutrition. I took human anatomy classes at UCLA.
'I used to drink up to 12 Tabs a day with a minimum of six,' she said. Tab was a diet soda that was popular in the 1970s.
'I gave up Tab for three weeks and told myself after that I could try it again later. But when I tried it again, I spit it out and my tongue hurt. I’ve never had a soda since then - no diet soda, nothing'.
Although there is currently no way to formally diagnose HSAM, according to Healthline, scientists and doctors use brain tests such as MRIs and electroencephalograms to examine the memory in people with suspected HSAM.
Certain exams like an autobiographical memory test may also be done to test an individual's memory. It involves using cue words to prompt a certain memory after which vivid emotional and contextual clues are numbered and scored.
The publication added: 'Although HSAM doesn’t carry any physical side effects or complications, it can be mentally exhausting to absorb and store so much information. Your doctor can advise you on coping mechanisms and answer any questions you may have'.
