EXCLUSIVE: Olympic star Rebecca Adlington hopes that speaking about her own personal emotional traumas will encourage others to do the same and says sharing can be 'powerful'
Four-time Olympic medallist Rebecca Adlington has enjoyed an incredible summer presenting for the BBC poolside at the Paris Olympic Games. But now, the down-to-earth sports star is back to her reality of being a busy mum and business owner. The presenting job, alongside Clare Balding and Mark Foster, came after what had been a very difficult year for Rebecca and her husband of three years, Andy Parsons.
Rebecca, 35, who has teamed up with Interflora for a campaign encouraging people to tackle difficult topics, says she had to overcome a number of barriers to speaking openly, beyond it simply being a “very, very private” experience. As if the pain of what had happened wasn’t bad enough, she needed emergency surgery following the loss, which left her battling life-threatening sepsis. Rebecca learnt of her second miscarriage later in the pregnancy, only finding out at her routine 20-week scan in October last year, shortly after she had joyfully announced that she was expecting. She gave birth to their daughter, who they named Harper, at Wythenshawe Hospital on 20 October.
“Miscarriage is just one example for me, but I’ve had therapy due to anxiety, I’ve been through divorce, I’ve been a single parent. There’ve been other times where I’ve found it hard to open up, or when I’ve felt a bit lost or stuck. How do you slip into a conversation about what you watched on telly that you feel really s**t about yourself?
No doubt, one of the happiest times her kids have seen her was on screen at this year’s Paris Olympics.
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