It was perhaps one of the most heartbreaking moments on this year’s I’m A Celebrity.
Danny Jones, McFly’s singer and guitarist and newly crowned King of the Jungle, told his campmates about his relentless battle with anxiety, which he has struggled with since he was 19.
In an emotional outpouring last month, the pop star, 38, admitted he is “constantly worried” and revealed details of a panic attack he once suffered during a television appearance.
But Jones isn’t the only member of his musical quartet who has had major struggles with his mental health.
From addictions to prescription painkillers to eating disorders to bipolar disorder, the lovable hitmakers have overcome major hardships.
One band member who has long been open about his mental health struggles is singer and guitarist Tom Fletcher, husband of social media influencer and podcast host Giovanna Fletcher.
More than a decade later, in 2012, Fletcher, 39, wrote in McFly’s autobiography about his “obsession” with being “the fat guy in the band.”
‘I wanted to lose weight, but instead of doing it sensibly, I practically stopped eating. I would go to Starbucks and order a frappuccino and a blueberry muffin and that would be me for the day,” he confessed in the book titled Unsaid Things.
Danny Jones is the second member of McFly to be crowned King of the Jungle, following in the footsteps of Dougie Poynter, who won the title in 2011.
The McFly star was overcome with emotion as she discussed her mental health with her campmates and admitted she has received therapy since she was 19.
“Not only would I punish myself internally if I consumed anything else, but I would be in a bad mood if we were working in a place where there was no Starbucks.” It was an obsession… and a deeply unhealthy one.’
Fletcher also told readers about a life-changing mental health diagnosis.
In 2011, he was referred to private psychiatric clinic The Priory, after battling feelings of depression for more than a year.
However, doctors diagnosed him with bipolar disorder, a mental health condition that involves extreme mood swings, including dizzying highs and disabling highs.
In a 2020 interview, Fletcher said he had always been “very emotional.”
“I felt excited one moment and then the opposite. But I think everyone thought that was me.
‘At the end of 2011, I watched a Stephen Fry documentary called The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive. He shared his story of bipolar disorder and depression, and he sounded exactly like me. I just cried.’
He admitted to being afraid to tell anyone about his emotional difficulties. “For a long time I still didn’t tell anyone. I was later diagnosed with bipolar. When I told my friend Harry, he said, “Ahhh, that makes so much sense.”
The quartet has battled a variety of mental health issues, from drug addiction to eating disorders.
‘Since then, more and more people have spoken out about their mental health. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.
Fletcher has previously said that becoming a father to Buzz, 10, Buddy, eight, and Max, six, has greatly benefited his mental health.
“Having children was the best thing that happened to me,” she said in the 2020 interview, as part of a charity campaign with McDonald’s.
‘They have taught me more about myself than I thought possible. Parenting helps you be less selfish, because nothing matters to you as much as they do.
‘Since becoming a father, my mental health has been in the best shape it’s ever been. Being a children’s book author has been another part of that. “I love watching my kids get lost in a good book.”
Bassist Dougie Poynter has also had his fair share of psychiatric battles and has bravely spoken publicly about them to offer support to others facing the same demons.
In 2012, months after the 37-year-old was crowned King of the Jungle, Poynter appeared on Alan Carr’s Chatty Man and admitted to the host that he had attempted suicide the previous year, due to drug and alcohol addiction issues. alcohol.
“It’s pretty therapeutic to come back, pretty scary and a little eye-opening about how dark it can get if you take your foot off the gas and stop taking care of yourself,” Poynter said.
Dougie Poynter, pictured in 2021, spent two stints in rehab. One, in 2011, to help him detoxify from drugs and alcohol after a suicide attempt, and another in 2018, to deal with a Valium addiction.
At the beginning of McFly, Tom’s weight “became a problem” and he “basically only drank coffee.” Tom recalled: ‘It was so unhealthy. ‘I would struggle with the low periods’ (band pictured from 2005)
Drummer Harry Judd added: “Half the time you didn’t know what you were doing, we were the ones telling you.”
“Yes, because he was very battered,” Poynter replied.
However, recovery was not an easy journey for the Essex-born musician. Four years later he developed an addiction to the sedative painkiller Valium, which lasted two years.
Poynter went to rehab after an intervention from his bandmates, and said he believes he agreed to go to a treatment center without “making a fuss,” although he doesn’t remember for sure.
In various interviews the star has confessed that the drug left ‘huge gaps’ in his memory.
Speaking about his experience with addiction on the On The Mend podcast last year, he said: “When I couldn’t connect to any kind of sense of self, I didn’t know who the fuck I was, what I was anymore.” Terrifying, the disconnection with myself, with my friends, with my family, I felt like I was a lonely world traveler who didn’t know anyone, like a damn alien. Which was fucking scary.”
Drummer Harry Judd said exercise is his therapy, as he has struggled with anxiety for most of his adult life. Pictured after running the 2024 London Marathon.
Izzy and Harry Judd are proud parents to Lola, 7, Kit, 5, and Lockie, 3.
Poynter is now very public about his ongoing recovery, often sharing clips with his 680,000 Instagram followers of him reviewing non-alcoholic drinks and bars.
The band’s drummer, Harry Judd, now 38, is also no stranger to mental health issues.
In 2020, his wife, violinist Izzy Judd, 40, told the Daily Mail that she suffers from “acute episodes” of anxiety, symptoms that Izzy also experiences.
The following year, the Strictly Come Dancing champion admitted in a campaign for Mental Health Awareness Week that he had “suffered from anxiety throughout my adult life”.
‘Anxiety can be very isolating and sometimes makes you lose yourself.
‘In those moments, I felt afraid to share how I felt.
The star, a father-of-three, added: “It’s easy to forget that our mental wellbeing is just as important as our physical health.
‘If you break a bone you seek medical help, but many people hesitate to ask for help for their mental wellbeing.
“I completely understand the courage it takes to speak out, but asking for help was the best thing I ever did in my life.”
Judd’s “therapy” is exercise, according to his wife. ‘He goes to the gym. If I see signs that his anxiety is appearing, I will prepare him a nutritious meal, make him drink plenty of water and encourage him to go for a run.’