Louise Redknapp has reflected on her battle with OCD after shooting to fame in the band Eternal.
The singer, 46, explained how she felt it was ‘the only thing I could control in my life’ during a candid interview on Friday’s episode of This Morning.
Although grateful to be in such a successful girl group, Louise said ‘the anxiety of not being in control’ and being away from home at a young age did take its toll.
Candid: Louise Redknapp has reflected on her battle with OCD after shooting to fame in the band Eternal during an interview on This Morning
Louise said: ‘For many years I suffered from OCD in a really big way, looking back I think it most probably came from it being the only thing I could control in my life.
‘Going on you do work and start to understand the illness a bit more, but I hope people out there that suffer might realise they’re not alone.
‘I had it really badly. It used to take me 20 minutes to go to bed at the night. I’ve come a long way since those days. And it has helped me to write it all down.’
Talking about Eternal, Louise said: ‘I was very young, in a band with amazing talented singers and something I battled for many years and now realise in my 40s, is I always felt like I was catching up like maybe I wasn’t good enough to be there.
Throwback: Although grateful to be in a successful girl group, Louise said ‘the anxiety of not being in control’ and being away from home at a young age did take its toll (pictured in 1995)
‘And that’s something people in all walks of life feel… and we traveled a lot and being so young away from mum, it really took its toll the anxiety of not being in control of own life.
‘Looking back I could have dealt with things and maybe not worried so much.’
Louise was in the band, which formed in 1992, with Easther and Vernie Bennett as well as Kéllé Bryan.
However, she added: ‘I’m so lucky to have been in the music industry when 1.5m albums in one year was possible.
‘And in the book I write about how I’ve realised we’re so unlikely to acknowledge our achievements, because we don’t like to come across like we’re big headed… and I’ve tried to point out it’s ok to be proud of what we’ve done in the book.’
Support: Louise also gushed about her mum Lynne and thanked her for a lifetime of support
Louise also admitted she had doubted whether to include her struggles in her book, You’ve Got This, before deciding they might help people with their own battles.
Elsewhere in the interview, Louise gushed about her mum Lynne and thanked her for a lifetime of support.
She said: ‘It makes me well up, I’m so fortunate to have her and she gives the honest truth and is completely on my side even when I don’t like what she has to say!
‘It was me and mum on our own for many years, without her going without things and giving me opportunities I’d never have got to stage school. I’m very grateful.’
Emotions: Louise also admitted to feeling ‘lonely, anxious and unimportant’ in the last few months of her marriage to ex-husband Jamie in her new book You’ve Got This
Louise also reflected on how she came to write a book – which she said was ‘not an autobiography’ but instead drew on her experiences and what’s helped her.
Admitting it’s been a ‘scary but lovely process’, Louise said: ‘Over the past 25 years I’ve experienced lots of things and some lessons have been bitter sweet.
‘When I was asked to do a book I wasn’t sure what was the right thing to do, but I love books which I can open on any page and get a “I’ve got this” feeling from.’
Louise recently revealed she was scared about writing about the last few years of her life that followed her divorce from ex-husband Jamie in her new book.
The media personality appeared on Wednesday’s episode of The One Show and discussed her book You’ve Got This with hosts Alex Jones and Ronan Keating.
Honest: Louise Redknapp has revealed she was scared about writing about the last few years of her life that followed her divorce from ex-husband Jamie in her new book
Asked what the hardest part of writing was, Louise admitted the most recent years of her life were tough to put down on paper following the former couple’s split in 2017 but added the book ‘isn’t about being nasty about anybody’.
She said: ‘Probably the last few years of my life [were the hardest]. I can talk about Eternal, being just me and my mum for a few years.
‘The last few years I’ve learned so much. Those were the chapters I was most scared about putting out.
‘This isn’t a book about being nasty about anybody or hurting anybody, this is just me saying how I felt as a woman, as a mum, that got to a certain age in my life. Things got a bit far and I put it down on paper. It’s what I learned from that time.’
Louise added that she was ‘shocked’ by the ‘amount of judgement’ she has faced being in the public eye in recent years, adding that her sons Charles, 16, and Beau, 12, have been her ‘saviours’.
Exes: Louise admitted the most recent years of her life were tough to put down on paper but added the book ‘isn’t about being nasty about anybody’ (pictured with Jamie in 2016)