Matthew Wright: My show gave me PTSD
MATTHEW WRIGHT has revealed that his show gave him post-traumatic stress disorder — but not in the way you might think.
The presenter hosted The Wright Stuff for 18 years before leaving in June, but now says he fears for his health had he stayed.
Speaking to The Sun, he said: ‘If I hadn’t got out, or left when I did, I don’t know what kind of state I’d be in today.’
‘If I had carried on, I do think it would have impacted me and my family.’
The disorder was diagnosed after Matthew found himself feeling ‘jetlagged’ during the day and persistently waking up early.
The 53-year-old said he thought it was ‘just because I’m used to waking up early in the morning, but the doctor said, “No, it is a sign of post-traumatic stress.”‘
But Matthew’s PTSD is not caused by the never-ending stream of people airing their emotional, social and sexual issues on his show — or the problems he’s had in his personal life, from a divorce, the loss of a family member and several failed rounds of IVF.
In fact he’s keen not to be a labelled a ‘snowflake’ and says he found doing his daily show ‘therapeutic’.
Instead, he blames the takeover of his show by ITN, which he says had difficulty ‘meeting the standards I was used to’.
‘That put loads more pressure on me and it started to impact my mental health,’ he said. ‘I am still suffering to some degree the consequences of that.’
But Matthew is looking to the future, as despite ‘never, ever, ever having a flicker of desire to have children’, he and wife Amelia are now expecting a little girl in February.
Author: Anna Thomson
