OUR DAILY PUB QUIZ
The Tolpuddle Martyrs museum is in which English county?
Which famous siblings made a hit mockumentary which aired on BBC2 last month?
Which Cabinet member is sometimes known as the “de facto Deputy PM”?
The peacock is the national bird of which country?
RADIO and TV host Jeremy Vine has admitted he suffered “burnout” 10 years ago while struggling to juggle five jobs – and being stalked.
The 55-year-old said he failed to cope with the stress of a “massive mortgage” and took on more than he could handle.
He said: “I had a stalker, two young children, I was in hunter-gatherer mode, the 2008 crash happened. I was doing five jobs, not in touch with my emotions and not in a good place. I had burnout, without a doubt, 10 years ago.”
He also slammed the impact work has on our wellbeing, saying: “Workplace stress is a big thing.
“If you talk to psychologists, they will tell you the majority of their patients have stress-related depressive illness. I remember a friend who was a psychologist said, ‘If you had a nervous breakdown in the 1950s you would be sent to live with your aunt in the country... and in three or four months you would be better’.
“The problem now is no one has time to do that. [My friend] has patients who are broken and they need to get better fast because they will get fired if they are not back at work in three weeks.”
Vine said he felt under such pressure
that when a psychologist said he might need time off work, he replied: “No, your job is to keep me working.”
He said he has now drawn on his experiences of depression for his “first serious novel”, The Diver and the Lover.
Speaking of his stalker, he said he knew he was in trouble as soon as they met at an autograph signing at the BBC.
He said: “She was utterly remorseless. She was following me on the train, following me home.
“A couple of things were very disturbing. The police did some intervention and in the end she packed up and left.”
Vine, who has a Radio 2 show and a Channel 5 chat show co-hosted with Storm Huntley, 33, added he is now being stalked now by someone else on social media. But legal action that is under way limits what he can say. He said he believes stalking of TV stars is widespread and worse for women, adding: “I do not know any colleagues, particularly female colleagues, who have not had this kind of stalker. With [women] there is much more of a physical safety dimension.”
■ The Diver and the Lover is published by Coronet next month.
JEREMY VINE
ON HIS STALKER HELL
She was utterly remorseless. She was following me home