Great British Bake Off winner Candice Brown has described suffering with clinical depression, chronic phobia and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a “real battle” in a new interview about mental health.
The TV personality, who won the competition in 2016, said baking and group therapy has helped her, adding that she also takes medication.
Speaking on the Open Mind podcast, she told ex The Saturdays singer Frankie Bridge that while she was initially “reluctant” to accept the prescription, she has been taking “various” drugs for five years.
The 34-year-old explained: “I suffer with clinical depression, chronic phobia and PTSD.
“It’s hard and people don’t realise, it’s a real battle. People might be like, ‘Oh she’s jumping on the bandwagon,’ but they’ve got no idea what has been going on in my brain for the past five or six years.
“It’s been s**t, sometimes I get angry and it’s probably going to be with me forever. When it got really bad, baking was what I would do.
“I’m on medication, I have been for five years, various different ones.”
The famous baker admitted she was initially angry that she would have to “rely” on medication, but now accepts she has a “chemical imbalance.”
Candice Brown’s top five Bake Off creations
1/6 Winner
Candice Brown won the Great British Bake Off 2016 – but what were her top five creations?
BBC/Love Productions/Mark Bourdillon
2/6 Cheesy cheeky fish pies
Candice didn’t receive 100% praise from the judges for her Tudor Week pies – and was marked down slightly for the fact that the juicy filling had leaked and crusted onto the outside.
But as we all know, away from the Bake Off tent those are the best bits to eat – we would have wolfed them down with absolutely no complaints.
BBC
3/6 Sausage, black pudding and apple round, and banoffee whiskey cups
Candice got her second nod for Star Baker in Pastry Week – and it’s easy to see why with her showstopper creations.
Her sausage rounds looked supremely crispy (“that’s spot on, that,” declared Paul Hollywood), while those banoffee cups are likely to come to a canapé party near you soon.
BBC
4/6 Royal picnic
In the final week, Mary and Paul asked a huge amount of the three remaining competitors – creating a 49-piece picnic hamper.
Andrew and Jane ultimately struggled, but Candice received better comments – and, come on, she made a four-tier chocolate cake, 12 puff pastry sausage rolls, 12 mini quiches, 12 savoury scones, and 12 fruit and custard tarts in five hours. An amazing effort.
BBC
5/6 The gingerbread pub
After a moderately disastrous first week, Candice bounced back in Biscuit Week with her incredible showstopper.
She recreated the pub she grew up in entirely out of gingerbread, and it looked absolutely stunning. What’s more, it apparently tasted great, and was full of personal touches. Top of the class.
BBC
6/6 The peacock
Making an edible peacock must be a good omen – Nadiya Hussain triumphed with one in 2015, and Candice won Star Baker in Tudor Week with hers.
She created four coloured sponges to make up a cake for the body, a marshmallow head and neck, and a full marzipane tail covered in edible glitter.
Oh, and she outed herself as a big Game of Thrones fan – which is always a plus in our book.
BBC
1/6 Winner
Candice Brown won the Great British Bake Off 2016 – but what were her top five creations?
BBC/Love Productions/Mark Bourdillon
2/6 Cheesy cheeky fish pies
Candice didn’t receive 100% praise from the judges for her Tudor Week pies – and was marked down slightly for the fact that the juicy filling had leaked and crusted onto the outside.
But as we all know, away from the Bake Off tent those are the best bits to eat – we would have wolfed them down with absolutely no complaints.
BBC
3/6 Sausage, black pudding and apple round, and banoffee whiskey cups
Candice got her second nod for Star Baker in Pastry Week – and it’s easy to see why with her showstopper creations.
Her sausage rounds looked supremely crispy (“that’s spot on, that,” declared Paul Hollywood), while those banoffee cups are likely to come to a canapé party near you soon.
BBC
4/6 Royal picnic
In the final week, Mary and Paul asked a huge amount of the three remaining competitors – creating a 49-piece picnic hamper.
Andrew and Jane ultimately struggled, but Candice received better comments – and, come on, she made a four-tier chocolate cake, 12 puff pastry sausage rolls, 12 mini quiches, 12 savoury scones, and 12 fruit and custard tarts in five hours. An amazing effort.
BBC
5/6 The gingerbread pub
After a moderately disastrous first week, Candice bounced back in Biscuit Week with her incredible showstopper.
She recreated the pub she grew up in entirely out of gingerbread, and it looked absolutely stunning. What’s more, it apparently tasted great, and was full of personal touches. Top of the class.
BBC
6/6 The peacock
Making an edible peacock must be a good omen – Nadiya Hussain triumphed with one in 2015, and Candice won Star Baker in Tudor Week with hers.
She created four coloured sponges to make up a cake for the body, a marshmallow head and neck, and a full marzipane tail covered in edible glitter.
Oh, and she outed herself as a big Game of Thrones fan – which is always a plus in our book.
BBC
“Group therapy taught me that bouts of depression will probably be a reoccurring thing,” she said. “It p****d me off that I would have to rely on things. Now I know it’s not my fault.”
The former PE teacher added that she has struggled to go to work on particularly difficult days and said she has experienced “not very nice thoughts of how I could get out of it.”
She said: “At its worse I was being dragged out of bed by my feet and the duvet being shut in the bathroom, so there was nothing on the bed, so I had to get up. Those were the really bad days.”
After winning Bake Off, Brown appeared on the 2018 series of Dancing On Ice and was partnered up with professional skater Matt Evers.
In January, Brown returned to the Bake Off tent for a New Year’s special but missed out on being crowned star baker, as series 8 runner up Steven Carter-Bailey triumphed.
