Louis Walsh has shared that he had a medical emergency while in the Celebrity Big Brother house.
The 71-year-old star said he suffered from severe insomnia and anxiety during his time on the ITV reality show. The X Factor judge suffered two panic attacks that required off-camera medical attention – scenes which weren’t aired.
Opening up about the ordeal, the former talent scout mentor explained that he’d wake up in the night but due to Big Brother’s strict rules he was not allowed to “get up and do anything”. Instead, he’d have to lay in his bed staring at the ceiling throughout the early hours.
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It all became too much and Louis became wracked with worry and anxiety. To help stem the problem, he was prescribed sleeping pills but was only allowed to take one each night which wouldn’t keep him asleep.
(Image: ITV)
Speaking to The Sun, he said: “We weren’t allowed to get up and do anything if we woke up in the night so I’d wake at 3, 4 in the morning, and just lie there in the dark, worrying about things.”
“Worrying about my mother, my health, what I had said that day – for the first time ever, I suffered from anxiety. They gave me my prescription sleeping pills but they would only give me one rather than two and after they wore off I was awake, panicking. The night times scared me.”
(Image: ITV1)
Louis went on to detail that the medics were called in to provide emergency support, with the TV personality hailing the 24/7 team as “brilliant”. This after they’d spoke to him during a panic attack and “really helped” to calm him down.
He went on to add: “I’ve never had therapy before, not even when I was diagnosed with the cancer, but for the first time ever I spoke to psychotherapists when I was in that house. It was surreal because you couldn’t see them, you’re just spoke to them through an ear piece – but they really helped me.”
(Image: ITV2)
Meanwhile, the music mogul left the nation in shock after he opened up on CBB about secretly being diagnosed and recovering from a rare form of blood cancer called Waldenstrom macroglobulinaemia. The music manager said he was recovering from a rare cancer, adding that it had been a “reality check”.
Louis had been chatting with Levi Roots and Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu when he made the surprising confession. During a chat about what he was doing in lockdown, he admitted to his co-stars: “I was sick, and I think nobody knew I was sick. I had cancer – a mild version, a rare one, in my blood.”
In the same conversation, he explained that while he was feeling better in himself, having cancer had mentally scarred him. He said: “It’s just up here, even when I go past a hospital I almost get sick. It’s all gone, I’m fine.
“It was just the shock of being sick and that word – nobody wants that word. I have it blocked out, a reality check. You see so many people sick and it’s terrible,” added Louis.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
