73: Fearne Cotton: 'I Was Exhausted Trying To Be Likeable'
Dig It with Jo Whiley and Zoe Ball
Persephonica
4.6 • 606 Ratings
🗓️ 11 March 2026
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
From burnout and therapy to people-pleasing and self-worth, Fearne opens up about the moment she realised how exhausting it was trying to be liked by everyone. They also talk about broadcasting in the early days, social media pressure, and why learning to forgive yourself might be the real key to happiness.
Watch on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuEDcmFY-mY
Buy Likeable - https://www.waterstones.com/book/likeable/fearne-cotton/2928377365677
Follow Fearne on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/fearnecotton/?hl=en-gb
Listen to Fearne’s Podcast Happy Place - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/happy-place/id1353058891
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SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS
This episode is brought to you by the Woodland Trust and Visit Scotland
✨ Woodland Trust – Looking for a gift that really means something? The Woodland Trust lets you dedicate a tree, a bench, or even a whole area of woodland in someone’s name. It’s a beautiful way to celebrate a birthday, mark an anniversary, or remember someone special. Dedications start from just £20 for a single tree, and you’ll receive a personalised dedication pack with a certificate, woodland map and information about the site you’ve chosen. Every dedication also helps support the Woodland Trust’s vital work protecting and restoring woods across the UK. Start your dedication at https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/digit
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CREDITS
Exec Producer: Jonathan O’Sullivan
Producer: Samantha Psyk
Assistant Producer: Eve Jones
Technical Producer: Oliver Geraghty
Video Editors: Danny Pape and Jack Whiteside
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Coming up on Diggett, that moment of who the hell am I? |
| 0:03.8 | Yeah. |
| 0:04.4 | If you take away the work and you take away the kids and you take away the life and looking after everybody, who the hell am I without all of that? I don't think you can get to liking yourself unless you can make peace with your past. And I had a lot of that to do. I want to say fun. And I'm really sorry that I never supported you more when you were doing the Radio One show. |
| 0:22.9 | Because I had no idea how hard it was for you. lot of that to do. I won't say Fern. I'm really sorry that I never supported you more when you were doing the Radio One show |
| 0:22.9 | because I had no idea how hard it was for you. |
| 0:25.1 | I was obviously subliminally worrying about what my therapist thought of me. |
| 0:31.2 | And she went, whoa, well, whoa, I'm just going to stop you there. |
| 0:33.6 | She went, how important is it to you that I like you? And I cried. Why am I only seeing |
| 0:40.4 | women post about International Women's Day? It should be the men posting it and we sit back |
| 0:45.1 | and bask in it. What's going on? What is this? All of that right after this. |
| 1:00.1 | This episode of Dig It is sponsored by the Woodland Trust. |
| 1:03.4 | Zoe, what is the best gift you think that you've ever given? |
| 1:04.9 | Because you are an amazing gift giver. |
| 1:06.0 | But what's the best thing? |
| 1:06.6 | Do you know what? |
| 1:07.4 | It's such a good question. |
| 1:11.3 | One of my favourite things that you bought me was the rose. You bought me the Lark Ascending, which grows just outside where I'm sitting here. I think the best gifts |
| 1:16.5 | aren't necessarily the expensive ones. They're the ones that really mean something, something |
| 1:21.7 | that lasts. Yeah, something that isn't just another thing which will inevitably end up in a charity |
| 1:26.6 | shop where you'll give to somebody else. |
| 1:28.4 | Exactly. That's why I absolutely love this idea and I know you will, Joe. The Woodland Trust lets you dedicate a tree, a tree, a tree, a tree, a tree, a tree, a tree, a tree, a tree, a tree, in Northampton, a bench, even a whole area of woodland in someone's name. It's such a gorgeous idea. My grandma and granddad have a tree in Abington Park in Northampton that my auntie organised. So every anniversary, whether it's their birthday or the anniversary of their passing, people can just go and watch this tree and it's obviously it's getting bigger and stronger and more beautiful and it just commemorates their lives. And we've always been looking for a way to commemorate our friend Tim who passed. And we used to spend lots of holidays in Cornwall with him and a bench on the headland looking out of the sea, somewhere that we walked constantly, the sea that we used to be in, is a perfect way to commemorate him. So imagine for yourselves whether you would have a tree dedicated for your loved one or a bench in a woodland where you can just go and you can |
| 2:18.1 | remember the person that you love that you've lost. It's just a wonderful idea. |
... |
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