Big Brother winner Kate Lawler has opened up about going through couples therapy with her husband.
The TV presenter and radio star, who won the third series of Big Brother in 2002, married her long-time partner Martin Bojtos in 2022 in a gorgeous London ceremony.
The couple had welcomed their daughter Noa one year prior, and Kate has previously spoken about suffering from post-natal depression.
She’s now revealed that after giving birth to Noa, she worried that Martin ‘wanted to break up’ with her, as he suggested having couples therapy.
‘Martin was the one to suggest it, around a year after I had Noa,’ Kate said, in an interview with New Magazine.
‘I wasn’t in the best place and it was having a huge impact on our relationship.’
She went on: ‘Plus we were getting married six months later and Martin just wanted to start our marriage on the right foot, which was totally the right thing.’
‘When he brought it up, though, I panicked and thought he wanted to break up withme.
‘It was the toughest part of our relationship.’
She added that the therapy turned out to be ‘invaluable’ and they ‘still do it every few months’.
Kate has previously spoken about how, in the months before their wedding, she and Martin were in the ‘worst possible place for a couple’, describing Noa’s arrival as a ‘seismic shift’ in their relationship.
Speaking on the Dirty Mother Pukka podcast about the strain parenting had put on her relationship with Martin, Kate said she ‘broke down in tears’ in the run-up to their wedding when counselling was suggested.
‘I thought it was the start of the end of our relationship,’ she admitted. ‘But he said, “It’s because we are six months away from getting married and I want to start our marriage on the right foot. We are in such a bad place right now.”‘
The star has been open about her mental health struggles, including her battle with post-natal depression following Noa’s birth.
Appearing on the In A Good Place podcast, she opened up on her life with generalised anxiety disorder and how she thought she’d ‘never be happy again.’
‘Considering where I was this time two years ago, yes,’ she said when asked if she was in a good place.
‘When Noa was a few months old and I was deep in the depths of postnatal depression, thinking I’d never be happy again, despite the fact that I loved her deeply.
‘Boj and I weren’t in a good place either, but everything’s turned around now.
‘Last year I was diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder and went back on meds, which I’m not ashamed to say.’
She went on to say she thinks it is important to be honest with fans about her mental health struggles to tackle the stigma surrounding them.
‘When you’re in the public eye, it’s dangerous not to be honest with the people who follow you online,’ Kate continued.
‘I’ve always been a very honest and open person; I’m an overshared. It’s like free therapy.’
