Alex Jones shares an update on her husband Charlie Thomson’s mental health battle

Alex Jones has shared an update on her husband Charlie Thomson’s struggles with his mental health after revealing last year that he was going through a ‘really bad period’.

The One Show host, 45, has been married to the insurance broker since 2015 and they have three children together.

Speaking on Gaby Logan’s podcast Midpoint, Alex shared that Charlie is “in a much better place now” than he was a year earlier.

She also revealed that Charlie had paid a lot more attention to his diet, and that cooking for his family had been a huge benefit to his mental health on days when he was struggling.

In January, Alex revealed that Charlie had become a “shadow of himself” as he struggled with his mental health, and she said she’d watched him “fall apart” after falling seriously ill with Lyme disease and viral meningitis.

Alex told Gabby, “I think what drives me is the fact that we have three young kids, and I think I have to do my best for them to keep myself.

“Mom and Dad have always been healthy, growing up we always ate balanced, but more than that, Charlie and I are focused on that.”

She continued, “He wasn’t very good last year either,” before Gabby asked, “How is he now?”

Alex then replied, ‘He’s good, yes. He’s in a much better place now than we were a year ago, but nutrition played a big part in that. We always eat relatively well, but he is rather food-savvy.

“I think it was also a way for him to fill his days in a way that he wasn’t feeling well.

And he decided to take on this kind of role of, well, we’ve got the drugs, but I’m going to see what else I can do to help myself.

‘He used to be a chef, so cooking and eating is something he loves very much and it brings him a lot of pleasure.

“I’m very lucky that he cooks most of the meals, but I do say it’s the glory job because nobody says ‘you stacked that dishwasher so well’, so he’s already cooking, but we’re eating really well.”

“A lot of legumes, a lot of veggies, a lot of veggies, and this thing that was news to me that five to 10 a day isn’t enough, it’s the variety, eat the rainbow, I tell my kids incessantly.” ‘

Alex then joked, “Charlie makes all their meals, which is great, so they eat really well.” Don’t get me wrong Annie got sugar when she was six months old, Ted didn’t see sugar until he was three.’

In an interview on the How To Fail podcast, Alex, the mother of three, said that Charlie “went downhill quickly mentally” and that the health issues wrapped him in a dark depression as she began to struggle to fully overcome his struggles and her own fears. to understand. she “loses him.”

Alex said, “It’s my husband’s story to tell, so I won’t go into details, but he’s suffering from his mental health and we’ve just had a really bad period where he, bless him, has the disease of Lyme and then he had viral meningitis. A lot of things have happened lately.

Charlie is super cute, but he became a shadow of himself. He was so sick, he went downhill really fast mentally.

And again I found myself at my wits end thinking, “Oh my God, I don’t know what to do here”. We’re all talking a good game, but do we actually know how to help people?’

Alex said that while Charlie “comes on the other side with ups and downs,” there was a time when she couldn’t recognize her bubbly, fun husband.

She said on the How to fail podcast“I thought I was losing him, like I wasn’t really losing him.” But I thought “Oh my God, where is he? I can’t see him”.

“I looked at him and I thought, ‘I’m looking and hearing someone who isn’t my husband.'”

The couple met at a party in 2011 and married four years later, and had children Teddy, five, Kit, three, and Annie, 23 months.

Alex revealed that she struggles to understand Charlie’s mental health struggles and has been honest with him in long conversations.

She said, “He’s trying to explain, and I said, ‘Do you think I’m a horrible person because I don’t quite get it?’

And he says, “No, but because you’re trying to get it, that’s why I love you.” But he said it’s hard to fully understand.

‘I listen to a lot of podcasts that deal extensively with depression. And sometimes I feel like if you’re really depressed – and I’ve seen it over the past few months – you’re not okay enough to be on a podcast. And I’m confused about where we are.

‘You feel the pressure because suddenly you are the breadwinner, the parent who functions.

“Only the management of life is now your responsibility, and the person you love the most is falling apart in front of you and you try to fit them together without really understanding how best to go about it.”

Alex said they are “knocked for six” as a family.

She said, “I wouldn’t go into details because Charlie is super private, but I think it’s worth sharing because it hits you as a family for six — not just the person going through it, but the person who then having to deal with falling out of the picture.

“It’s full.”

When asked what advice she would give to families who are experiencing what she has been through, she replied, “The only advice I can give is what we did and seek professional help because I didn’t feel equipped.

“So I just went very carefully. I gave him time. And you feel frustration, especially if you don’t realize its magnitude.

“Because you’re thinking, “Oh my God, well, okay, I’ll take care of everything else while this is going on.” But you soon see “Oh god, this is super serious”.

“And I just went very, very carefully. We talk a lot as a couple. So we talked about it a lot and I said “I’m worried because I’m not sure I feel equipped to know how to help” and he said “if only you could research and find the best person” .

‘And it’s difficult because the NHS is incredibly supported. People who urgently need appointments cannot get appointments, especially in mental health care.

“And we’re lucky because we were able to pay and get help faster. But I think the only way to approach it is professionally.

“I said, ‘What I found out is that the first step is probably we should go to the GP then these are the people, I have three options for you, do you think you want to call one of these people and have an initial interview ?”

And he was like, Well, this person sounds a little bit more like someone I could open up to. And the fact that I took the legwork away from him saved it in the end.”

For confidential support, call the Samaritans at 116123 or visit a local Samaritan branch. See www.samaritans.org for details