‘I’d wake up and think I don’t see the point in life’

TV presenter Carol Vorderman reveals how she felt suicidal as she battled her changing hormones

She’s become one S of the nation’s best-loved TV presenters with her energetic persona, but last week Carol Vorderman shocked fans when she revealed she’d been secretly struggling with “extreme depression” which , at her lowest ebb, left her feeling suicidal.

Speaking on ITV’S Lorraine, Carol, 56, said that going through the menopause led her to face a crippling six-month emotional battle at the end of 2015, which left her wondering whether there was any point in living.

The former Countdown host said: “[I was] powering on doing this and that and building houses and flying a plane and bringing up my kids by myself and all of those different things. Then this depression hit me – and I don’t use the word depression lightly. This was

❛This depression hit me – it was a blackness. it went on for months ❜

a blackness… I would wake up and think, ‘I don’t see the point in carrying on. I don’t see the point in life.”

And shockingly, talking about her lowest point, the star – who is mum to Katie, 24, and Cameron, 19– admitted the “only reason” she “didn’t do anything” was because of her two children – despite feeling at an all-time low.

She said: “I thought, ‘I just want this feeling to stop, I’d do anything for this feeling to stop because I can't sort it.’ And this went on for a number of months.”

Fortunately, Carol sought help and began to feel better after visiting a specialist who she credits with changing her life, though she urged women to be more open about their struggles. She also started using Estrogel (a gel used to balance hormones). We look at how you can manage the symptoms of the menopause…