Fearne Cotton says presenting TV shows makes her body go into panic mode: ‘It’s a whole PTSD thing’

Presenter says she goes ‘into catastrophe mode’ as she worries something will go wrong

Fearne Cotton at the National Television Awards (Getty Images)

Fearne Cotton has revealed that appearing on TV shows causes her body to go into a panic.

The former Top of the Pops presenter, who has moved into the health and wellbeing industries in recent years, said it was “a whole PTSD thing, feeling unsafe in certain spaces”.

Among her other TV and radio credits are Celebrity Juice, the Red Nose Day telethons, various BBC radio shows, Love Island, Children in Need, and The One Show.

“I worry something is going to go wrong or I’ll be judged, and I go into catastrophe mode,” she told The Guardian.

She recalled a particular incident where she was scheduled to appear on a major national TV programme, where she ended up lying in bed, “wide awake and panicking”.

“Intellectually, I know I’m going to be OK,” she said. “But my body goes into panic. It’s a whole PTSD thing, feeling unsafe in certain spaces.

She added: “I have a really big imagination, which is amazing – it allows me to write and be creative. But it also sends me to bad places, from where I can’t get back.”

Cotton launched her Happy Place podcast in 2018, as a platform to share positive ideas with guests that have included Hillary Clinton and Alicia Keys.

She has also published three self-help books, with a fourth, Speak Your Truth, out next year.