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Gail Porter opens up about mental health struggles while promoting new documentary

LONDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 25: Gail Porter talks at Wellcome Collection on September 25, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Joe Maher/Getty Images)
Gail Porter talks at Wellcome Collection on September 25, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Joe Maher/Getty Images)

TV presenter Gail Porter has opened up about struggles with her mental health.

The star spoke out while appearing on Lorraine to promote her new documentary Being Gail Porter, which sees the former Big Breakfast presenter attempt to understand her mental health struggles by revisiting her past.

Speaking about the project, she told host Lorraine Kelly: “It was much more tricky than I thought it was going to be… I learnt a lot and I felt better.

Read more: 'I just embrace it' - Gail Porter says she quite likes having no hair

“I’m trying to get through emails and tweets and Instagram messages… there are just so many people it seems to have helped.

“I have seen it once when I was doing the voiceover for it. And I did find it quite tricky. So I had to disappear a little bit and come back in and deal with it… I do cry an awful lot.”

Despite being happy with the documentary, the 48-year-old admits she was reluctant to allow daughter Honey to watch it.

She explained: “I didn’t want her to watch it… she knows certain bits, but she doesn’t know all of it. And then she came to my flat and said, ‘I actually watched it yesterday, Mum’. And I said, ‘Oh no, I’m so sorry.’ And she said she cried and I said, ‘What did you cry for?’ and she said, ‘You didn’t tell me everything’. We have got even stronger together, so I got lots of hugs. She’s great.”

Read more: Gail Porter doesn’t feel pretty enough for Strictly

The experience of struggling with her mental health has lead to the former model to be more open with those closest to her.

She said: “Now that I speak to my friends more often, because I kept a lot of things to myself, because I was too embarrassed to pick up the phone and say ‘Do you know what I’m in a bit of dire straits here’.. it’s taken me a while to learn.”

Asked what is good for her by the host, she responded: “Fresh air, people’s dogs, smiling at people.”

She added: “You can take the hair but you’re not going to take the girl!”

Lorraine on ITV weekdays 8:30am - 9:25am and you can watch Being Gail Porter on BBC iPlayer now.