00:00I had diluted myself down to a version of me that was just sage enough to get by so no
00:06one gave me
00:07shit. It absolutely crushed me. Being in the entertainment business it's all about being
00:13liked. But it was survival being likeable because if I wasn't likeable I didn't have a job. If the
00:19audience turn against you you are screwed and I was incredibly depressed for a long time and
00:25on medication just to like you know still going to Radio 1 every day and having to deal with
00:29all of it it all just hit me in one big lump and it was utterly horrendous. Hello I'm Fern
00:38Cotton and I'm in great company. A round of applause for Fern Cotton everybody. Now here's Fern Cotton.
00:46I heard that you had a boyfriend once who said you could never get any tattoos and so to rebel
00:51you got a tattoo. Is this right? Do you want to see it? Fucking massive. That went down really badly.
00:55You started TV at 15? Yes. Very lucky. I have a job that I love and I've been doing it
01:01for a very long
01:01time but it can be absolutely horrific and two things can be true at the same time and then sort
01:08of subsequently went for a big big patch of anxiety and panic after that that was you know debilitating.
01:15It was suddenly out of nowhere? Yeah. I couldn't do live TV. I had to stop doing live radio. I
01:20couldn't
01:20drive a car on the motorway or an a-road because the speed would give me a panic attack but
01:25the last
01:25four years I have tackled all of it head-on. How do you do that? Okay so I can't believe
01:31I'm saying this.
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