'People feel they can open up to me now'

Sharing her struggles has helped Gail Porter deal with many life knocks and she is urging others to get talking

- DENISE MARSHALL

Gail Porter has experienced amazing highs and heartbreaking lows in her life. After finding fame as a children’s TV presenter, she went on to host shows such as Top Of The Pops. Heralded as a national sex symbol, she was shocked when an image of her naked body was projected on to the Houses of Parliament in 1999.

She appeared to be living the dream – in demand in her professional life and happily married to Toploader guitarist Dan Hipgrave, with whom she has daughter Honey, born in 2002. But then tragedy stuck. As her marriage fell apart, Gail developed alopecia, losing her hair and lucrative work.

She ended up bankrupt and destitute, but determined to rebuild her life, revealing in 2020 documentary Being Gail Porter how Celebrity Big Brother saved her from being homeless, as it gave her the money to put a deposit on a flat. Now 51, Gail still lives in the same London home and is a committed mental health campaigner with the Samaritans, vowing, “absolutely nothing can break me”.

Here, she reveals how she recovered from rock bottom, to live her life trying to be the best parent and friend possible.

Hi Gail. Tell us how you first got in contact with the Samaritans?

I remember phoning them when I was having a pretty tough time many, many years ago. I didn’t want to take up their time, but when I did call it was such a weight off my shoulders – to talk to someone who didn’t want to know your name, didn’t want to know where you lived…