Chloe Madeley suffered from crippling anxiety and turned to drink as she battled internet bullying as the daughter of Judy Finnigan and Richard Madeley.
The reality actress and mother-of-one, now 36, will feature in the upcoming show At Home With The Madeleys, having made a name for herself in the television industry.
However, because her parents were once the king and queen of daytime television, she battled with internet bullying and being accused of nepotism, to the point where she would be ‘up all night, puking or drinking.’
‘It felt like people hated me, just for being my parents’ daughter, and got to a point where I was so desperately unhappy I couldn’t function any more,’ she said.
Recalling her time on Dancing On Ice in 2011, when she was 24 and suffering from severe anxiety, she claimed she stopped sleeping and turned to alcohol to self-medicate as trolls hounded her on social media, accusing her of only being on screens because of her parents.
She told the Daily Mail: ‘I couldn’t sleep, I was up all night, either vomiting or drinking, which obviously made everything worse.’
‘My dad found me on the kitchen floor one morning, at my worst,’ she said, and urged her to seek help.
It led to her being diagnosed with GAD and being ‘brought back into reality’ with a combination of talking and cognitive behavioural therapy.
While she still gets abusive comments online, she is now able to look at it a different way: ‘I’m respected and successful in my own field and don’t give a s*** what people say about me.’
‘If they don’t like the fact I’m my parents daughter, that’s their problem, not mine.’
She’s come a long way since being left crying beneath a table as a runner on an unknown TV programme when she was 19 and a producer humiliated her for neglecting to bring a celebrity into the green room.
The producer ‘lost his mind in front of everyone and said, “Just because you’re Richard and Judy’s daughter doesn’t mean you’re going to get an easy ride here.’
She claims that this was the start of her generalised anxiety condition.
But now, years later, Chloe is the star of her own programme, alongside husband James Haskell and one-year-old daughter Bodhi, with visits from Judy.
At Home With The Madeleys will depict the family’s lives together, including Chloe adjusting to becoming a new mother while DJ husband James is gone for extended periods of time.
It comes after Chloe revealed she would be ‘nervous’ to leave baby Bodhi with her TV royalty parents, Judy, 75, and Richard, 67, for fear of wearing them out.
She explained to OK magazine: ‘Bodhi is their fourth grandchild and there’s a fifth one on the way as my brother’s partner is having a baby.
‘Bodhi’s a very active child. She wants to get up, she wants to move. If you try to confine her, she’s not a happy girl.
‘So at this stage. I’m a bit nervous to leave her alone with Mum and Dad for longer than a couple of hours. I just think she’ll run them ragged.’
