Fearne Cotton reveals she felt 'lost' at the height of BBC Radio 1 fame

Daily Mirror

21-04-2025

Fearne Cotton has opened up about falling into a depression and struggling with fame after leaving her Radio 1 job back in 2015, admitting she suffered an identity crisis
Fearne Cotton says she almost gave up on showbusiness after failing to reach the flying success of presenting idols Ant and Dec - recalling how she struggled with fame and felt confused about what was next.
The former Radio 1 presenter, w ho split from her husband Jesse Wood in December last year, admitted in a new episode of her Happy Place podcast to feeling 'lost' in her early thirties, despite having become a household name through her role as a TV presenter.
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She said, "I got to this point where I found myself just really not liking what I was doing, finding the feedback loop of being on the radio and in the public eye, excruciating. I started to inflate other people's view of me with what I knew to be true about myself. Which is dangerous, really dangerous."
"I thought every negative thing said about me was true. I left radio and I just thought, 'What am I doing? What is the point of any of this?'
"And I honestly thought at that point, 'Maybe I just quit everything because it's all too painful'. And I wrote a book called Happy, and that was the first time I really spoke about anything remotely real, because you can't really do on the radio," continued Fearne.
"This is the first time where I said, 'Actually this is what's going on' rather than me just saying 'morning' and playing some happy music. It was like, actually, I'm going home and I'm crying and I don't know who I am anymore. I was in a real period of proper depression and on antidepressants".
After writing her 2017 book Happy, Fearne says she began to come out of the depression and found a love for work again, having since expanded the book into a Happy Place lifestyle brand.
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It's not the first time Fearne has spoken about her battles with depression and mental health, often drawing on her own experiences when interviewing fellow celebrities on her podcast.
Last year, Fearne split from her husband of ten years Jesse Wood, whom she shares children Rex and Honey with.
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While Fearne nor Jesse have shared why they ended their marriage, they did share a statement at the time which read: "It is with a heavy heart that I let you all know that Jesse and I are ending our marriage. Our priority has been and always will be our children. We please ask that you respect the privacy of our family at this time."
The break-up came five years after Fearne opened up about marital troubles they had faced in the past, writing in a column for Red Magazine at the time: "Love takes hard work - and no one wants to hear that. This year, Jesse and I hit a rough patch - he was away, touring relentlessly, [with his band, Reef].
"I was trying to keep my own career going while looking after our kids and we were both desperately clinging on to our marriage."