Eva Speakman has detailed the difficulties she faced at the hands of trolls when she and her husband Nik became regular faces on This Morning.
The pair, known collectively as The Speakmans, are life-changing experts helping others with mental health issues, trauma and phobias.
But talking about Podcast My Dirty Laundry This week, Eva, 55, revealed she was attacked by cruel trolls when she appeared on the show.
It was especially painful because Eva had suffered a lifetime of bullying before becoming a household name.
She said: “We’ve really had our fair share of trolling and at first, I’m not going to lie…particularly when we started working in television, I found it quite difficult.”
Eva Speakman admitted she found her job on This Morning TV difficult to deal with because of cruel trolls and has suffered a lifetime of bullying, but her husband Nik has helped her overcome it (file image).
Life-changing experts Eva and Nik, 65, once cured former This Morning presenter Holly Willoughby of her fear of ghosts, as well as her fear of flying.
‘I was someone who was bullied throughout my childhood, even until I met Nik, actually.
‘And so I got out of it and then Nik came to my rescue, he helped me build my self-esteem again and my self-confidence.
‘Then all of a sudden these strangers started saying really bad, horrible things. So I had to sit back a little bit and say, “Does this really matter? Is this person’s opinion really valid? What is my reason for being in the media?”
‘It’s to help people. I am doing that? Yeah.’
Eva said that with Nik’s help, she quickly found a way to stop the trolling from affecting her.
She said: ‘We quickly got into the habit of just blocking. And that would be what I would say to anyone. Don’t even take the bait. You just block and move on because they’re not really very relevant people.
“Anyone who feels it’s appropriate to be cruel to someone is honestly not worth it. So he blocks immediately.’
Eva and Nik, 65, have previously used their expertise to cure former This Morning presenter Holly Willoughby of her fear of ghosts, as well as her fear of flying.
Nik and Eva appear on the latest episode of the My Dirty Laundry podcast (pictured)
They said: ‘Holly had to fly out the following week to help with the I’m A Celeb launch so we were able to help her with that, which was nice.
‘His fear arose when presenting a children’s television program. She had to get on a plane and the pilot who was with her – it was only a two-seater – stopped the engine on purpose /
And she just thought the plane was going down. And then she just said, “we do this, it’s a test we do” and she restarted it, everything was fine.
‘But at that moment and without knowing it, he developed a fear of flying. And we worked with her for that.”
The Speakmans said her treatment was so successful that Holly even sent them a photo of her giving the go-ahead for her flight the week after she was treated.
Nik and Eva met 33 years ago during a chance meeting. Eva’s car had been stolen and Nik offered to help her at a time when people didn’t have cell phones.
Eva said: ‘Nik had one. It was huge. It was one of those briefcases, like the ones Dom Joly had.
‘When my car was stolen, I just wanted to use the phone. So I went to this office to ask if I could use theirs. There was a guy there who looked very dapper in a suit and a permed mullet.
Even though Nik was flying to the United States in a few hours and hadn’t packed yet, he called the police on me and told my family what had happened.
Nik and Eva and their two children Olivia and Hunter have launched a new podcast called Handbook To Happiness.
They said of the podcast: ‘There’s a lot of laughter. I think that’s the beautiful thing about a family dynamic: that you can’t get away with anything when your kids are there.
“He was so charming. When he came back from the States, I wanted to take him to lunch to thank him.”
I didn’t like him at all, but I thought he was a very nice guy and very, very sweet. So I took him out to lunch and the rest is history, as they say.
“We have been together 33 years, we have two children, five cats, two snakes, two tarantulas and three lizards.”
Nik and Eva and their two children Olivia and Hunter have launched a new podcast called manual for happiness.
Eva said: ‘The podcast is literally packed with lots of useful advice and information. It is a very honest and open discussion about our own insecurities, our fears, the things that have happened in our lives, the people we have helped, how we have managed to help them.
“There’s a lot of laughter, too. I think that’s the nice thing about a family dynamic: that you can’t get away with anything when your kids are there.
They will give you away completely. And they betray each other, I hasten to add. In the best and most fun way. But the headline, obviously the concept is that, for so many years we have said, it would be great if there was a manual for life and there isn’t.
Nik added: ‘You know, you get your heart broken and you turn to page 25 and it tells you how to deal with it and you know, you lose someone and you turn to page 50, etcetera.
‘So this is what we’re trying to create with the podcast: it’s like a life manual.
‘We talk about advice and life stuff, really great information about how to be more positive, how to gain more confidence, how to overcome a phobia, OCD and trauma.
“And how to be more positive and a whole host of other things, including body dysmorphia, comparison, judgment, health anxiety, fear of death, all of these topics.”
Listen to The Speakmans Podcast, Handbook for Happiness here
To hear their full interview, listen to the My Dirty Laundry podcast, here