‘ I’d suppress my facial tics to fit in at school’

Scarlett Moffatt talks embracing her differences, emulating her idols and exploring the rise of Tourette’s in teenagers

- RHIANNA BENSON

When Scarlett Moffatt was diagnosed with Bell’s palsy after experiencing sudden onset tics at school, she felt out of control of her body.

“I’d try to suppress the facial tics so I didn’t stand out, which was like holding in a hiccup, and as soon as I’d get home, they’d all come out,” she bravely reveals to new. “I didn’t feel in control of my own body. The only form of Tourette’s that my family knew about was swearing, which we’d seen on TV.”

Now, the 31-year-old is exploring the syndrome, delving into her personal battle as part of new Channel 4 documentary Britain’s Tourette’s Mystery: Scarlett Moffatt Investigates.

“It’s the hardest thing that I’ve ever filmed,” she says. “Tourette’s is unpredictable.

I went to the doctor’s but the treatment wasn’t simple. You expect them to say, ‘Right, here’s a course of steroids and you can have speech therapy, and it should get better,’ but it wasn’t as easy as that.

“I’m lucky that I have a really good support network, but I’m aware that other kids haven’t got that,” she adds.

Scarlett shot to fame in 2014 as a Gogglebox regular alongside her parents Mark and Betty, sister Ava-Grace and then-boyfriend Luke Crodden. She says she has “graduated from the university of TV” after making the move from professional TV watcher to documentary presenter.