Carol’s suicide torment
Carol Vorderman opens up on a dark period in her life, and how her kids saved her
‘This was a blackness where I would wake up and think, “I don’t see the point in carrying on”’
Just two months ago, Carol Vorderman poignantly revealed that her mum, Jean, has terminal cancer. But it seems this is not the first time the TV star has battled with sadness.
In possibly her frankest interview to date, Carol, 56, revealed last week that the menopause plunged her into such a dark depression that she didn’t ‘see the point in life’.
In fact, her six-month battle in 2015 blindsided her, she said, before adding that if it weren’t for her children, Katie, 25, and Cameron, 20, she may not be here.
‘I didn’t have any other symptoms that a lot of my friends have had with the menopause – I was just getting on with it and powering on, and then this depression hit me – and I don’t use the word depression lightly,’ Carol said on ITV’s Lorraine.
‘This was a blackness where I would wake up – nothing else in my life was going wrong, I’m a very lucky woman, no money worries or anything like that – and think, “I don’t see the point in carrying on. I just don’t see the point in life.”’
The symptoms of crippling depression overwhelmed her for several months, Carol explained. ‘I thought, I just want this feeling to stop, I’d do anything for this feeling to stop because I can’t sort it.’
But it was when she was asked by host Lorraine Kelly, 57, what might have happened if she hadn’t sought help that she bravely confessed she’d contemplated ending her own life, replying, ‘I suspect we wouldn’t be talking today.’
The former Countdown star added, ‘There was no reason to feel that way, and the only reason I didn’t do anything is because I have two children.’
After months of torment, she was able to turn a corner. Carol visited a professor who prescribed her with biomedical gel treatments a year ago, and she hasn’t looked back since.
The former Loose Woman has been inundated with messages on social media from fans thanking her for speaking out on such an important, yet often taboo, subject.
Lorraine, who’s been Carol’s friend for 30 years, said, ‘The very brave and honest interview will have helped so many people.’ We couldn’t have put it better ourselves.