Frankie Bridge has revealed she stayed on antidepressants during her first pregnancy as her doctor told her there was a ‘good chance’ she wouldn’t be around otherwise.
The Loose Women presenter, 32, is mother to Carter, six, and Parker, four, with her husband Wayne Bridge, 41.
Speaking on Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place podcast, Frankie admitted she struggled during pregnancy and felt like she had ‘no control’ over her body.
Candid: Frankie Bridge has revealed she stayed on antidepressants during her first pregnancy as her doctor told her there was a ‘good chance’ she wouldn’t be around otherwise
She said: ‘There was a bigger decision on the antidepressants before I got pregnant. I stayed on mine. I didn’t know that was an option until that point.
‘I remember talking to my doctor. He just said to me, “Frankie I just don’t think you can come off them”. Because I had been hospitalised for my mental health before.
‘”There is a real big chance you will have this baby and you won’t be around to be able to look after it.”‘
She added: ‘There are some you can’t stay on but luckily the ones I was on I could.
Family: The Loose Women presenter, 32, is mother to Carter, six, and Parker, four, with her husband Wayne Bridge, 41
‘I really thought that while I was pregnant I would just be happy because I had always wanted to be a mum and I always wanted to be pregnant and lucky for us it happened fairly easily.
‘I found being pregnant really difficult. My body really changed and again I had no control over it. It was the first time I realised I really controlled my food and I’d had an eating disorder for quite a few years.
‘It became apparent to me, my doctors knew that. For the first time I was really hungry and I really enjoyed food.’
Frankie added that she also felt guilty about struggling during her pregnancy because she had always wanted to be a mother.
Frankie said: ‘I remember talking to my doctor. He just said to me, “Frankie I just don’t think you can come off them”. Because I had been hospitalised for my mental health before’ (pictured with Wayne)
She said: ‘It wasn’t just there to keep me going. I think it was the lack of control during pregnancy that made me suffer mentally.
‘I was really depressed. The guilt that comes along with that, when all you’ve wanted was to be pregnant. It is a minefield.’
Frankie, who has penned a new book called GROW: Motherhood, Mental Health & Me also discussed her children, saying she worried about her eldest son because he had ‘sensory issues’.
She said: ‘I had a son, my eldest he had speech issues he had sensory issues and the fact he now reads on his own and he enjoys it.
‘He works hard at school, he was my child that I worried about so much. It just goes to show they are either that way inclined or they are not.
Frankie added: ‘I found being pregnant really difficult. My body really changed and again I had no control over it’
‘He’s had to work harder to get to that point but he enjoys it. My youngest could probably do it standing on his head but he’s not interested.’
She added: ‘He is where I never thought he would be. He is teaching me to let go, he has really bad asthma.
‘We are in and out of hospital all the time I think I am so on top of it and then he has a flare up. I have done everything I was told to do yet we still end up in that situation.
‘In a way it has taught me not to be so anxious about everything – he has this kindness about him that is so lovely.’
Frankie, who has been open about her mental health struggles in the past, also discussed having a breakdown following a concert with The Saturdays during Thursday’s episode of Loose Women.
Honest: Frankie added that she also felt guilty about struggling during her pregnancy because she had always wanted to be a mother
The singer said: ‘I was battling for a very long time with depression and anxiety behind closed doors, the girls didn’t really know anything, it kind of came to a head when we had a gig in Dublin.
‘I just needed to be in the dark, I shut all the curtains and I just wanted to be in bed and I didn’t want to be anywhere else. Mollie [King] came through and I was just sobbing uncontrollably. It was the first time any of them had seen me in that state.
‘She sat with me and I managed to pull myself together. I did do the show, there’s picture… she’s physically holding me up.
‘It was after that, I couldn’t hold it together anymore. I didn’t want to be here anymore. I felt like I’d become Frankie from The Saturdays and this other Frankie, I was like two different people.’
Frankie told how her husband Wayne called the GP who in turn contacted a psychiatrist which led to the star checking into hospital.
She said: ‘Wayne didn’t know what to do, called my GP and said you have to come around I don’t know what to do.
She said: ‘I was really depressed. The guilt that comes along with that, when all you’ve wanted was to be pregnant. It is a minefield’ (pictured with newborn Parker)
‘She rang a psychiatrist and she was like the only way I can help you is by taking you away from the situation.
‘There was never going to be a time where I was happy to step away, they booked me into this hospital, but we’d already booked this video for Heart Takes Over, I mentally prepared myself that this was going to be my last job, I’m going to do this and then go to hospital. I look at the video and I just look so dead by the eyes.’
She added: ‘It was scary [going to hospital]. We got some lunch on the way there, but by this point I was so exhausted and I didn’t feel like I was able to keep myself alive, keep myself well, I was so ready to just surrender and hand myself over to anyone who was going to do that for me.
‘I had this padded cell idea in my head, but it was nothing like that. I just slept for the first two weeks. We’d only been together only a year, maybe not even that, I was so lucky he stayed.
‘Being with him, it sounds so weird, I was in our shower at home, I remember thinking I’m so happy, this is what I want and where I want to be, I’m with a man I love but fundamentally I’m unhappy. It took happiness to make me realise I was unhappy.’
Interview: Frankie, who has penned a new book called GROW: Motherhood, Mental Health & Me also discussed her children, saying she worried about her eldest son because he had ‘sensory issues’