If you're considering therapy, and you're able to go, Ferne McCann says to go for it. The reality star has recently opened up about the fact she has been attending therapy for the past three years. But she hasn't always been so open about it. 'I didn't speak about it for quite some time,' the First Time Mum star tells Grazia. 'There's a feeling that if I ever touched on it, there would be an article about Ferne McCann being in therapy - I don't know if I was reading it this way - but there was almost like a feeling that [I'd] had a breakdown and there's something wrong with you.'
The reason she now wants to share her experience is to try and dismantle some of the stigma she says still exists in the UK about therapy. (As Ferne points out, it's far more normalised in the States.) 'My therapy is a very positive experience.' she says. 'It's helped me massively, from self development and self love to working through certain situations and emotions that I completely blocked. When you openly speak about something with your therapist, I know that's completely confidential, there's no judgement and I can openly speak about it with with that person.'
Ferne adds: 'In the UK we speak so much about mental health and being kind and I want to share my experience, because if you have considered it, and you haven't quite gone for it, then my advice would be to definitely go.' She also adds that she did not go to therapy as a way to deal with fame, or working in TV. (Her former boyfriend Arthur Collins was jailed over a nightclub acid attack in 2017, and Ferne was left devastated for his victims.)
The 30 year old started out on TOWIE in 2013, but since appearing on I'm A Celebrity in 2015, Ferne - who has a daughter, Sunday, 3 - has continued to have a successful TV career, with her own reality show First Time Mum. Tonight, she will also appear on Celebrity Best Home Cook. But now that Ferne knows the industry, she won't let herself in certain situations.
'I wouldn't do anything now if I was to feel uncomfortable, and I've definitely been there in certain shows,' she says. 'It's a fine line with reality TV, and I think you need to go in with your eyes wide open, knowing that it can actually completely change your life overnight. And I think that that can be tough for some people to deal with.'
Mark Wright has recently spoken about his time on TOWIE, saying that he 'hated his life' after watching the first episode back, as he was portrayed as a 'bit of a doughnut'. And while Ferne says she's grateful for her time on the series, she can relate all too well to sometimes feeling like she portrayed a character on the show. 'I had my ups and downs and my struggles, and I've kind of spoke about it, but not gone into too much detail,' she says. 'It was hard because I wanted to be famous at the time. And I wanted to be on the show, and I wanted to be amongst the drama for air time. It's a perfect storm, because even though I wanted those scenes, it was really not normal to then see what your boyfriend was saying about you behind your back.'
'And then people are gonna watch you and think that is your true self,' she continues. 'And then they're going to judge you. In the end, I started playing a role. I mean, I have no regrets because I left to go on the jungle. But it's finding that balance between reality, or is this a reality show for your entertainment? And that's very difficult to kind of flip between.'
Ferne appears on Celebrity Best Home Cook, Tuesday and Wednesday nights at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
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