Frankie Bridge ‘didn’t want to live life anymore’ at lowest point in depression battle

Frankie Bridge ‘didn’t want to live her life anymore’ at her lowest point with depression.

The Saturdays star was given the Mental Health Game Changer award at Glamour’s Women of the Year Awards on Thursday, for being candid and open about her own struggles with mental illness.

The 32-year-old first disclosed her experiences with depression and anxiety in an interview with Glamour in 2012, and recalled opening up about her mental illness while accepting her award.

In a video filmed remotely, Frankie said: ‘I always say that I was someone who was born anxious. 

‘As I grew up in the public eye, I realised that I didn’t have much control over my own life, and it got to a point where I felt like I was coming into work and I was being “Frankie from The Saturdays,” rather than just Frankie.

‘I started feeling that I didn’t want to be around anymore, I didn’t want to live my life anymore. I wasn’t able to cope with day-to-day normal life without crying. 

‘I found I wanted to spend all my time in bed and hide away. That was when I realised that maybe my depression and anxiety had taken over me rather than me having control over it.’

Frankie had told the magazine that in 2011, she was admitted to a psychiatric ward for a month after suffering a breakdown aged 23, at the height of her fame with The Saturdays.

She said: ‘I chose Glamour magazine to speak to about my mental health because it just seemed right at the time. I felt like they were going to be sensitive to the subject and they really were, they really got it. 

‘There was part of me that chose to do the interview to say, “actually, I was in hospital because I had anxiety and depression and this is my story,” but obviously I wanted to help others to open up and seek help where they needed to, and it did that. 

‘The fact that people still come up and tell me about that one interview in Glamour magazine just means so much to me.’

Dressed in a pink tulle dress, Frankie added: ‘Thank you so much Glamour for my Mental Health Game Changer Award. It means so much to me, it’s so nice to know that just by having honest and open conversions you feel like I’m helping people. 

‘And this award is just the cherry on the top so thank you so much.’ 

Back in 2012, Frankie shared that her now-husband Wayne Bridge called a doctor to get her help after she suffered a breakdown.

She said: ‘All those years I’d had control of my illness – and suddenly, it had control of me. One night, I got upset because Wayne hadn’t bought the right yoghurts; I managed to convince myself that he didn’t know me at all. It set off this spiral of negative thinking – that if I disappeared, it wouldn’t matter to anyone. In fact, it would make everybody’s life easier. 

‘I felt that I was worthless, that I was ugly, that I didn’t deserve anything.’

While Frankie still lives with depression and anxiety, she said she is ‘out the other side’ and that nine times out of ten, her mental health is under control.

The former S Club Juniors star is now married to Wayne, 40, and they share sons Parker, eight, and Carter, five. 

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