Fearne Cotton has revealed she suffered from “crippling anxiety” while working at BBC Radio One, leading her to “hide in bathrooms”. The 42-year-old broadcaster opened up about her time fronting the show which she did for a year in 2008. She then moved on to present her own weekday show for six years until 2015.
At the time, Cotton was one of the station’s biggest names, but said she felt unable to speak out as back then, conversations about mental health were not something that happened. Speaking to The Shift podcast , she said: "I wish it had been different in a way back then because I had such an excruciating time when I was on Radio 1. I didn't feel I could tell anyone because we didn't know that was a possibility back then that you could say 'Look, I am really struggling here and I don't know what to do'.
"And there's still a long way to go but I'm so glad that there is at least a crack in the door. I'm so glad that the ties have changed but back then I massively struggled in that situation of feeling so incapable of doing my job and talking publicly to millions of people every day whilst slowly corroding inside. Sometimes I'd sort of get up and go to the toilet while songs were on and just sort of sit there but I certainly wouldn't tell anyone why or what was going on.
" Cotton left Radio 1 in 2015 after announcing she was pregnant with her second child. She returned to the airwaves on BBC Radio 2 in 2016 but left five years later to focus on her mental health..