Joe Wicks has spoken out about his difficult upbringing ahead of a new documentary on his childhood to air next week.
The fitness instructor, who received an MBE after helping the nation stay fit with online lessons during lockdown, will attempt to come to terms with his childhood and spark an open conversation about mental health in the new programme.
Joe Wicks: Facing My Childhood will see the Body Coach recall growing up with parents who ‘really suffered with their mental health’.
Speaking about the documentary on The One Show on Wednesday, Joe admitted he is ‘in tears, in bits in every single scene’ in the documentary as he realised he ‘wasn’t ready for the conversation’.
Speaking to presenters Alex Jones and Jermaine Jenas, Joe explained: ‘My dad had a drug addiction from a really young age so he was in and out of rehab and that was really hard to understand.
‘And my mum had OCD, obsessive cleaning two or three times a day… I didn’t understand – that was normal to me.’
He described his upbringing as ‘very chaotic, manic, destructive,’ but said the documentary’s ‘positive message’ at the end made it all worth it.
The One Show aired a clip of the upcoming documentary, with Joe seen going through some of the messages he received from people about their own mental health struggles.
In the clip, the fitness instructor sheds a tear after reading a hand-written card from a child.
Elsewhere in the preview, Joe recalled how his parents ‘were up and down, up and down, all my life’, and how he felt ‘so upset and confused and lost’ as a child, admitting it was ‘really tough’.
‘Then I read these letters from parents saying they’re going through similar mental health issues, I can’t help but feel a connection,’ he said.
Joe told the One Show hosts the documentary was one of the most ’emotionally challenging and mentally draining’ things he had ever done, as it forced him to have conversations with his parents that he had never had before.
He added that he is ‘really proud’ of what he and the documentary team had done with the programme, which will air on Monday, May 16.
The One Show airs weekdays from 7pm on BBC One.
Credit: Original article published here.You can read this post on My Celebrity Life.
