Destination X star details debilitating hidden health condition as BBC series became ‘ultimate challenge'

Daily Mirror

3 days ago

The Destination X contestant saw the BBC gameshow as the "ultimate challenge" to help her overcome it.
Destination X contestant Chloe-Anne has opened up about a health condition that has impacted her since childhood, as she hoped to overcome it while taking part in the BBC series.
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The historian from Oxford was one of 13 strangers battling it out on Rob Brydon's new gameshow. The show sees them travel across Europe and take part in challenges to try and find out where they are.
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In a Traitors-style twist, Chloe-Anne was eliminated from the competition in the very first episode, only to be brought back into the game earlier this week.
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However, it was only for a short stint, as she lost out on the £100,000 cash prize when she failed to correctly guess the location after a series of tense challenges in episodes that aired earlier this week.
Despite losing her spot in the show, Chloe-Anne has revealed that she did complete what she set out to do in overcoming her anxiety.
In an exclusive interview, the 27-year-old shared: 'I grew up with crippling anxiety, like I had such bad anxiety when I was growing up that I couldn't go into a cinema without screaming, crying, or throwing up and running out, it was really extreme claustrophobia and anxiety.
'When I was about 15 years old, I developed this phrase to help me get through it, which is 'Be more Tiger-Lily than Wendy'. I wanted to be more like Tiger-Lily from Peter Pan than Wendy because Wendy was this wimp who couldn't do anything by herself and just cried all the time, and I just felt like she was me, and I didn't want to be her.
'I wanted to be this badass warrior princess like Tiger Lily, who could do absolutely anything, and I felt like this was the final challenge to that. I've come so far with being more Tiger Lily than Wendy, and this was the ultimate way of proving to myself you really can do anything like this.'
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As a teenager, Chloe-Anne worked to overcome her anxiety, starting with smaller challenges, even just taking herself to the cinema. She then went into public speaking and is now becoming an aerialist and hanging herself from the ceiling to do circus tricks.
With plans to write historical fiction, pursue a PhD, and launch a social media series featuring historical facts from every country in the world, the star has taken major steps to overcome her anxiety but saw Destination X as her 'ultimate challenge.'
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Chloe-Anne had previously applied for The Traitors and wanted to try her hand at Destination X not only to overcome her anxiety but also as a tribute to her grandmother, who had a huge influence on her life and with whom she spent time doing puzzle books growing up.
She told us: 'My grandmother was a huge part of my life growing up and she's always been a huge inspiration for me. She passed away almost exactly a year before the filming of the show, and we used to do puzzle books and riddles together, and she always used to love doing stuff like that with me. It felt like a bit of a sign with the timing of it a little bit.'
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Reflecting on her experience as a whole, Chloe-Anne said it was 'phenomenal' and a 'whirlwind', despite feeling 'gutted' by her exit.
'It was a very strange experience in that it both felt like it was a really, really long period of time and a really short period of time at the same time.
'It feels like a crazy amount happened in a really short period of time, but yeah, it was phenomenal, a completely unforgettable experience.
'It was like nothing else that is going to happen to me again, probably, or has ever happened before.'