I had diluted myself down to a version of me that was just beige enough to get by, so no one gave me shit.

It absolutely crushed me.

Being in the entertainment business, it's all about being liked.

But it was survival being likable, because if I wasn't likable, I didn't have a job.

The audience turned against you, you are screwed.

And I was incredibly depressed for a long time and on medication just to like, you know,

I'm still going to Radio One every day and having to deal with all of it.

It all just hit me in one big lump and it was utterly horrendous.

Hello, I'm Fern Cotton and I'm in great company.

A round of applause for Fern Cotton, everybody.

Now here's Prem Cotton!

I heard that you had a boyfriend once who said you could never get any tattoos.

And so to rebel you got a tattoo. Is this right?

Do you want to see it?

Fucking massive. That went down really badly. You started TV at 15. Yes. Very lucky. I have a job that I love and I've been doing it for a very long time. But it can be absolutely horrific. And two things can be true at the same time. And then sort of subsequently went through a big, big patch of anxiety and panic after

that that was, you know, debilitating. It was suddenly out of nowhere. Yeah. I couldn't do live TV.

I had to stop doing live radio. I couldn't drive a car on the motorway or an A road because the

speed would give me a panic attack. But the last four years, I have tackled all of it head on.

How do you do that? Okay, so I can't believe I'm saying this.

Guys, welcome back to another episode, a great company. Firstly, thank you so much for coming back.

Really appreciate it. Today's episode is with a great friend of mine, Fern Cotton. And weirdly,

Fern and I and a couple of friends, we go for dinners like every other month to chat about life and everything. So having this podcast today is like one of our dinners, we chat about parenting, the fact that I become a new dad that is kind of really interesting for me. We also talk about how Fern is stopping being a people pleaser. And we also talk about how she experienced panic attacks and anxiety and how she's overcome that. Today's episode goes all over the place and I can't wait for you to listen to it. Now, before we start again, if I can ask you just one thing, which is subscribe to our show, I know I keep asking you every single week, but it does us wonders. And it means we can keep making the show better and better for you each week. So join the community and click subscribe if you can.

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