Kyms Back On Track....
FALLEN Hear'Say star Kym Marsh has talked for the first time of how she has bounced
back from one of the lowest points in her life.
The 28-year-old mum-of-two fell into a deep depression and suffered panic attacks
following the collapse of her solo singing career and her separation from her toyboy
husband Jack Ryder, 22, after only a year of marriage.
But with the help of Paul McKenna, who gave her several sessions of hypnosis, she says
she has conquered her demons and is now looking forward to a whole new future.
She is currently preparing for her West End debut - as Annette in a new production of
Saturday Night Fever - and her marriage is back on track.
"Paul was fantastic," says Kym. "He hypnotised me and I immediately began to feel better
about everything. I have seen Paul a few times since. He's also spoken to me regularly on
the phone."
She reveals how she turned to him only after her worried family begged her to get help.
"It was pretty horrible - I thought I was cracking up," she reveals. "One day I was busy
working 20-hour days as a solo star and happily married. The next my marriage was in big
trouble. Then I was dumped by my record label.
"It happened literally overnight. I hit rock bottom. I felt really lost. I cried for days.
"Everything that could have gone wrong did.I started getting panic attacks. I often got
insulted by the public about being a bad mum. I love my kids and what people were saying
brought on the panic attacks even more."
Kym, from Wigan, who had children David and Emily in her teens, tells how she
remembered being in Manchester with her dad when everything got on top of her.
"I was getting out of my car and had another panic attack," she says. "I was in floods of
tears. I fell on the floor. I couldn't breathe. My dad was full of fear. It was such a low point.
"I was suffering from depression. Sometimes I didn't even feel like getting out of bed. I
didn't want to be prescribed the anti-depressant Prozac. A close relative suggested I go
and see Paul Mckenna."
She says the past year has been extremely difficult and tells how she found it hard trying
to sort out her marriage in the public eye.
"Jack and I did go through a bad patch," she says. "Some people rudely speculated that it
was all down to my obsession with fame and the fact that Jack hadn't done a great deal
since leaving EastEnders.
"Some gossips even said that I was having an affair with David Willcox of Triple 8, which
was nonsense. Yes, it was bad between Jack and I. We had problems. Jack moved to his
dad for a while for space. But he's moved back home and we are back on track again.
"Jack is doing panto at the end of the year. He has had a bit of a hard time since leaving
EastEnders. Work has sometimes been a bit thin on the ground, but he sees panto as
the beginning of a ladder. He's doing OK now."
Kym says what made her depression worse was worrying about her father David, who
was seriously ill with a heart condition. "Dad was due to have a quadruple heart by-pass,"
she says. "He had a cardiac arrest 10 years ago. He was told that if he didn't have the
operation he would die if he had another heart attack.
"What shocked me was that there was a year's waiting list to have the operation done on
the NHS. My dad didn't want me to pay for it - I had to bug him into doing it. He had the
operation at a private hospital in London six months ago.
"Despite what my dad's been through, he's still worrying about me more than himself."
But in the last six months, Kym has turned her life around. Sporting a gym-honed body
and a trendy new haircut, she says: "I'm looking after myself much better now. I've got a
personal trainer at the gym and he has pushed me that extra mile. I enjoy my food, but my
trainer told me to halve the portions. So when I have chocolate, I just eat half a bar. It's
just as good."
One thing Kym is certain she won't be doing is appearing on any more reality TV shows.
Although she admits she got a lot out of Hear'Say, she is very critical of how the band
were looked after.
"Everyone owned a piece of us - the TV company, the record company. It's hard. You are a
human being. You want to go out and have a laugh - but you are told what to do.
"The truth is that reality TV is dead now. People just don't want it any more."