Andrea McLean on fleeing home: Why I had to leave Nick and the kids behind
In a surprising Instagram post, Andrea McLean said she visited the Scilly Isles alone last week ‘to get away’…
She’s known for being private, but last year, after suffering a breakdown, Andrea McLean, now 50, admitted to being in a ‘dark place’.
And it seems the Loose Women anchor is getting ready to reveal even more in a new book out later this month, called ThisGirlIsOnFire.
She already seems far more open to sharing her life, posting just last week that she was on the picturesque Isles of Scilly, near the Cornish coast, without friends or family as she needed ‘time and space’.
Explaining her decision to go solo on Instagram, the mum-of-two explained she’d been unable to attain a clear mind while juggling responsibilities at home.
‘Soooo… this has been a week of firsts,’ she wrote. ‘I needed time and space to work on something and trying to think straight at home, while juggling the combined responsibilities of mum, wife, telly work and @officialtgiof meant it wasn’t going to happen if I didn’t do something different.
‘As they say, if you want something different to what you have, you’ve got to do something different to what you’ve been doing! So, I boarded a train, got on a helicopter, then a boat... and arrived on Bryher in the Scilly Isles, for a week in a tiny, beautiful cottage perfect for one… It was my first time going away on my own, and my first time on Scilly. I hiked up hills, sat and stared at the sea, got caught in the rain, worked, ate, slept and did all of this in my own time.’
The star went on to say the experience was revelatory – and she actually remembered ‘who she was’.
‘For the first time since
I can remember I moved to the beat of my own drum. I remembered who I am, not just “what I do”. I think so many of us women have forgotten who “we are”, and feel guilty for taking the time to remind ourselves… I’m grateful that I was able to do this, and then return to a loving, welcome home, ready to pick up where I left off. I may be a mum, a wife, a broadcaster, a CEO, but this week I reminded myself that I am, most importantly, me. And I’m happy about that.’
Andrea – who has been married to businessman Nick Feeney for the past three years and has two children, Finlay, 18 (with BBC producer Nick Green) and Amy, 13 (with builder Steve Toms) – has always been a family girl at heart – but who could blame a girl for escaping the daily grind for some ‘me time’?
Perhaps more of us should follow her lead…
‘For the first time I can remember, I marched to the beat of my own drum’