FEARNE COTTON: How I Set Boundaries & Stopped Being a People Pleaser
Great Company with Jamie Laing
Jampot
4.5 • 947 Ratings
🗓️ 18 March 2026
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
So many of us grew up watching Fearne Cotton on children’s TV and then later listening to her on Radio 1. She’s a broadcasting icon, bestselling author and someone I’ve looked up to for such a long time.
At just 15, Fearne was thrust into the public eye when she began her TV career on Disney Club. With that came a huge pressure to be liked and she felt like she needed to change parts of her personality to fit in and keep people happy.
In this conversation, she opens up about how, despite her success, she often felt she didn’t deserve the opportunities she was given.
In this episode, Fearne shares:
- How she has learned to let go of people pleasing
- Her 10 year battle with anxiety which forced her to step away from live radio and TV
- How she began working on TV aged just 15
- Working with incredible artists like Eminem and Amy Winehouse
- Why it’s important to push boundaries and care less about being likeable
This conversation is an important reminder that when you stop worrying so much about what other people think of you, you give space for the real you to shine.
If you enjoyed the show, you can also follow us:
Instagram- @greatcompanypodcast
TikTok - @greatcompanypodcast
Jamie - @jamielaing
And if you've got thoughts, questions and comments, you can email us at: greatcompany@jampotproductions.co.uk
THE CREDITS
Executive Producer: Ewan Newbigging-Lister
Producer: Helen Burke
Assistant Producer: Issy Weeks-Hankins
Video: Jake Ji & Josh Bennett
Social Media: Anthony Barter & Amber Hourigan
Audio: Rafi Amsili Geovannetti
Great Company is an original podcast from JamPot
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everyone. My name is Jamie Lang and this is Great Company. |
| 0:06.0 | Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of Great Company. Now, today's episode is with my buddy Fern Cotton. |
| 0:16.0 | Fern and I have been friends for a while. We go for dinners with each other. We laugh with each other. We just have a great time with her. She's incredible. And in today's episode, we chat about so many things that actually I did not know about Fern. We chat about parenting, the fact that I've become a new dad. We also talk about how Fern is stopping being a people pleaser and why she's finally stopping caring so much about what people think of her. |
| 0:37.9 | I know so many of us listening will relate to it. Now, Fern also tells me how tough it's been |
| 0:43.5 | at times to grow up in the public eye. She opens up about experiencing anxiety and panic attacks |
| 0:48.1 | in her 30s and how it became so overwhelming that she had to quit doing live radio. |
| 0:53.4 | Now, it's an incredible episode. I really hope |
| 0:55.3 | you enjoy it. And before we start, if I could just ask you one thing, which is just click that |
| 0:59.9 | subscribe button. I know I keep asking every single week. I get it. But if you can do that one |
| 1:04.5 | thing, I will honestly love you forever. Okay, enough of me. Enjoy this incredible episode, |
| 1:12.7 | a great company with Fern Cotton. |
| 1:26.9 | Hello, I'm Fern Cotton and I'm in great company. Having kids is exhausting. That's how I'm going to go straight in there with that. |
| 1:27.6 | Straight in. It's crazy. I know. And you know what? We obviously, we had dinner not long |
| 1:33.6 | before Siggy was born. And you can't do the thing of saying to a mate, oh my God, watch out, |
| 1:39.9 | like the tiredness is bleak. You can't. You just got to, you experience it as you do and you, |
| 1:44.7 | and you learn on the job, but it's unreal. But you've already, you've been there, you've |
| 1:49.8 | experienced it, you're still in it, you've got teenagers, doesn't end, doesn't end, it never ends. |
| 1:56.8 | No. And it's sort of, it does get easier in ways. I'm not sort of wiping shitty arses anymore, but |
| 2:03.9 | Yeah, that's a good thing. You are dealing with other stuff like get off your phone, get off the |
| 2:07.7 | PlayStation, you know, there's other things that replace the shitty bums. And sleep can still sometimes |
| 2:14.0 | be bad if they're ill or one of them's had a nightmare and my daughter will |
| 2:18.3 | still get in the bed with me here and there. So yeah, which is gorgeous. But this is like, |
... |
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