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Frankie Bridge Opens Up On Depression And Guilt Over Sister's Miscarri

Rachel Andrews

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Frankie Bridge Opens Up On Depression And Guilt Over Sister's Miscarri

Featured Image Credit: PA

Frankie Bridge has opened up on being hospitalised for depression in 2012, admitting it was a 'god-send' as it allowed her time to understand her diagnosis.

The Saturdays star took a break from the hugely-successful girl band at the time, and now she's reflected on how far she has come in a new interview to coincide with Mental Health Awareness week.

"I've always had anxiety and I think back when I was really suffering, people didn't know about anxiety and depression," she explained on the podcast Verified Views.

"I genuinely believe if that was me now maybe it wouldn't have escalated into me hospitalised when I was."

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Frankie continued: "That was kind of a bit of god-send for me going into hospital because it just gave me time to check out and check in with myself and to understand what mental health was.

"You can feel like it controls you and that's what had happened to me. I felt I had control over it at one point and all of sudden I didn't. For me, knowledge was the key to understand what's happening to your body physically when you're having a panic attack."

The mum-of-two, who is married to footballer Wayne Bridge, is now an ambassador for mental health charity Mind, but admitted that she was worried she would become a 'poster girl' for depression at the time of her diagnosis in 2012.

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"The fact that my depression is a chemical imbalance and I'm not just going crazy. To meet other people that are feeling the same and to all be on medication and it's not this big deal," she said on the podcast, which went live on Monday.

"I think when I came out of hospital I just felt like with the fans of The Saturdays at the time that they deserved to know because I felt like a lie for the last how many years pretending to be this person I thought everyone wanted me to be."

Credit: PA
Credit: PA
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Frankie's honest comments come after the popstar also opened up on the 'guilt' of becoming a mum while her sister suffered several miscarriages.

The former Saturdays singer and her sister, Victoria Cook, recently appeared on This Morning to discuss the pain and turmoil of miscarriage in a bid to help others going through the same thing.

Frankie has two children - Parker, five, and Carter, three - with Wayne, but says she struggled to find the right words to say to support her sister.

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"It's been difficult to know what the right thing is to say wrongly or rightly because I do have two kids, I don't want to be quite blasé about it," she explained.

"But I know Tor doesn't feel like that, also she doesn't want me to feel 'oh I feel really sorry for you' - you're quite practical. It's been quite hard."

Victoria, who recently opened up on her three miscarriages in a raw Instagram post, added: "Every time I tell people about it, I knew people that had one or two miscarriages, but I didn't know anyone that had three, so when it came to our third it hit home so much.

"When I tell people they're so shocked they can't believe it.

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"No one really knows much about miscarriages, so I was sat at home and I thought 'I need to talk about it somehow', so I wrote it down. Then I thought, Instagram is the place where I have the most followers."

She continued: "I've been quite open about talking about it, but I think the response from people is quite hard, [but] if they can tell one person and it's me then I'm fine with that, and I've tried to reply to everybody."

If you need support and advice on miscarriage, stillbirth or baby loss, visit Tommy's here

If you need support and advice on mental heath, click here for Mind.

Topics: Celebrity News, Real, Health

Rachel Andrews
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