Andrea McLean has revealed she didn't set out to share she had suffered a nervous breakdown on live television back in May 2020, but she tells us she is glad she did in the end.
The 52-year-old opened about having a nervous breakdown before the coronavirus lockdown in 2019 while speaking openly with her Loose Women co-presenters. And Andrea admits she even "forgot" she was opening up in front of the whole nation.
“Like most things in my life that I’ve been open about, it happened accidentally,” she says. “I can’t remember who asked me but they said, ‘How are you coping with it [the Covid lockdown]?’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m really glad that last year, I had a breakdown. I’ve spent a year building my mental strength back up so that I’m actually in the best place I could possibly be to cope with something like a pandemic.’
"And it kind of came out my mouth before I realised I was telling the whole world that I had a breakdown."
Andrea said that speaking out about her breakdown helped her recognise there is still a stigma and shame around women not being able to put their hands up when they're struggling.
“You’ve overheated, you’ve broken down. We’re all just human beings," she shared.
"And I think I’m actually really glad I said it because we need to be more open about the fact that there are moments in our lives when we aren’t coping," she continued.
"It’s all very well to say, ‘Oh, it’s good to talk and reach out,’ but there’s still a stigma and shame, especially for women who are seen as doing well and holding it all together."
Andrea added: "And that’s the joy of Loose Women. You forget the people watching and just have a conversation.
"But the beauty of that was I actually opened the doors for me to realise there’s no shame.”
Andrea described 2019 as a “really rough year” where she was trying to be the “perfect mother and wife”.
She left Loose Women in December 2020 to concentrate on her mental health and spend more time with her family – her husband of seven years Nick Feeney and her two children Finlay, 20, and Amy, 15.
Andrea revealed she is in a much better place these days, but confessed she can still feel lost from time to time.
She said: “I know how it feels to feel stuck, scared and burnt out, overwhelmed, thinking, ‘I don’t know.
"I’m a capable woman, I’m really good at what I do but I don’t know, I feel lost – I feel like I’ve kind of lost my direction.’”
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