I’ve beaten my anxiety... now I just want to give the trolls a hug
Scarlett Moffatt on tackling abuse
SCARLETT Moffatt has told how she has finally beaten anxiety sparked by vile online abuse, and says she would now even give the trolls a hug.
The I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! star previously said she “cried her eyes out” over remarks about her image.
But Scarlett, 28, said she has learned to blank out the negativity.
As she prepares to co-host ITV2 spin-off Extra Camp, she said: “If I’ve learnt anything, and if I can encourage others, I’d say try to focus and love the people that are loving you, rather than hate the people hating you.
“Otherwise you get into this cycle of negative thoughts. You have to try and blank it out.
“I always think, ‘I wouldn’t say that to people’. So then you have to think, what frame of mind are these people in? If anything,
I just want to hug them all.
“They need a hug and you can’t please everyone.
“I’ve read so many books to help and I chat to my mum. The Alchemist was good and F**k Anxiety, and anything by Matt Haig is amazing.” In July Scarlett said she was reduced to tears after being a pundit on Love Island. She had said: “Feel like I can’t even film TV shows without hating the way I look after – from constantly being attacked because of my size and my appearance.”
The former Gogglebox star, co-hosting Down Under with Joel Dommett and Joe Swash, said she had been “catapulted” into the industry in the last two years.
She added of the abuse: “I think it was the volume of it that was overwhelming at first. But also with that you get lots of positive comments. So you just have to take the rough with the smooth.”
Scarlett, Queen of the Jungle in 2016, also told how pal Ant McPartlin will be missed on I’m A Celeb but praised his stand-in Holly Willoughby, who she said has begun rehearsals ahead of Sunday’s first show.
She said: “I think we’re all going to miss Ant. That’s obvious, we all love him. But Holly is so professional and amazing at what she does.
“Like she says, she’s keeping the seat warm. I couldn’t think of anyone better and obviously Ant will be back next year.”
■ I’m A Celebrity... Extra Camp starts on ITV2 at 10.45pm on Sunday.