Fearne Cotton has said she did not feel at home in the television industry until she was in her thirties.
The presenter wrote in The Big Issue magazine that she had “anxiety that I didn’t belong” from the start of her career.
She added: “I remember so clearly standing in the studio looking around thinking, how are they so accomplished, how are these pop bands taking up that space and feeling really solid about it?
“I feel like I’m still the suburban schoolgirl.
“And I felt that until I got into my thirties, I’m not joking.”
She added that she “dropped into this depression for a couple of years and I had to sort of start from scratch again” when she was around the age of 30.
Cotton said she had an “intense” relationship with the press when she was in her twenties, adding: “I had a bit of an emotional collapse when I was going through that time of being constantly papped by the newspapers.”
She said she felt “misrepresented and misunderstood, which is a really horrible feeling”.
“Now I don’t care, people can say what they want,” she said.
“I’ve been to hell and back, so now it’s about being me and if people don’t like that, it’s really none of my business.”
Cotton said she stays “sane” by focusing on her family and home life.
The full story is in The Big Issue in print or you can subscribe online or download the app.