Truly support
independent journalism
Our mission is to provide unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds the powerful to account and exposes the truth.
Whether it's $5 or $50, every contribution counts.
Support us in offering journalism without agenda.
Ben Fogle has shared details of a debilitating mental health problem he suffered last year.
The 50-year-old presenter, whose wife Marina recently revealed she had been wrongly reported to social services for verbally abusing their children, said he has used cognitive behavioural therapy and unspecified medication to help him recover from the “episode”.
Fogle explained that his mental health “breakdown” was partly due to “exhaustion” and that he has since simplified his life to return to his “old calm self” and heal from the “storm,” which left him suffering from “crippling paranoia and anxiety.”
On Instagram, Fogle told his followers: “I’m telling you this first and foremost because I think as someone who shares their successes, it’s important to share our vulnerabilities as well. It’s not to jump on some trend or to generate sympathy. It’s because if it happened to me, [it could] happen to you.”
He continued: “But just like a broken bone or a lung torn apart by pneumonia or even a flesh-eating virus (all of which I have had) we can heal.”
Fogle said mental health problems do not “define us” or “make us weak” but rather “prove that we are human” and “vulnerable to the pressures of modern life.”
“Mental health trauma should not be a stigma, but rather a wake-up call to the increasingly complicated world we live in,” she said.
“What has helped me is doing less and simplifying my life. Less social media. Less work. Less pressure to be perfect. The results are that I worry less: I stress less, I get less angry, I obsess less.”
The former Country profile The presenter explained how spending more time on himself had helped him “come back to reality” and “be myself”.
Signed: “Love, peace and simplicity.”
Fogle's vulnerable post comes shortly after his wife Marina detailed how she had been wrongly accused of verbally abusing their children Ludovic, 15, and Iona, 13.
Writing in The timesMarina recalled how, in 2013, when she returned from her holiday she found a letter “from social services saying there had been a report of verbal abuse at our address”.
Her first thought was that the letter had been sent “by mistake,” but before she had a chance to contact the authorities, they arrived at her home to “talk about my children.”
“[Someone] “We had been reported for allegedly yelling at our children, they said, the kind of sustained verbal abuse that was simply unacceptable,” she explained.
She then asked when the alleged incident occurred and social services told her it was four days ago, when the family was out of the country on holiday.
But despite proving their absence with boarding passes, this was not enough to appease the investigating social worker, and Mrs Fogle was questioned in further detail about her children's home life.
“My kids spent 20 minutes showing off their Lego and toys, after which they told me there was clearly no problem and they expected me to understand why they needed to investigate,” she explained.
She added: “My husband, Ben, was so shocked that someone knew this was possible, combined with the fact that we are not a very loud family, he suspected it might have been someone wanting to cause trouble.”
If you have been affected by this article, you can contact the following organizations for assistance: mind.org.uk, nhs.uk/livewell/mentalhealth, mentalhealth.org.uk.
