Gail Porter recovering after 'being sectioned following suicide attempt'

By Daily Mail Reporter


Troubled: Gail Porter, pictured at a London party last month, was reportedly hospitalised after cutting her chest and arms


TV presenter Gail Porter is recovering at her London home following an apparent suicide attempt.

The Scottish mother-of-one was reportedly detained under the Mental Health Act and taken to hospital after she was found in her bathroom with cuts to her arms and chest.

The TV star's latest troubles come only a few weeks after she was reported to have made a suicide threat following an argument with boyfriend Jonny Davies.


Following the alleged incident at her North London home on Wednesday night, the presenter, 40, was hospitalised before being discharged yesterday.

Porter was seen returning to her home in Belsize Park with Davies, 25, and told The Sun: 'I'm fine, thank you very much.'

A Met police spokesman said: 'Police were called to an address in Belsize Park at approximately 21.00 hours on Wednesday following concerns for the welfare of a resident.

Date day out: Gail Porter and her boyfriend Jonny Davies having lunch in London earlier this month

'A woman was detained under the Mental Health Act and taken to a medical facility.'

While Porter recovers from her ordeal, her eight-year-old daughter is staying with her father Dan Hipgrave, guitarist with Toploader.

Porter has spoken openly about her mental issues, which have affected her throughout her adult life.

Following the birth of her daughter in 2003, Porter was diagnosed with post-natal depression.

As well as this she was also diagnosed as being bi-polar in 2005.

That same year 2005 she had to have stomach pumped after overdosing on pills following the breakdown of her marriage to Hipgrave.

At the time, she insisted it was a 'cry for help', not a genuine suicide attempt.

She blamed taking herself off Prozac too quickly saying: 'I didn't want to die,' she said, 'it was just a real cry for help, I felt so alone.'

She has also admitted to self-harming when she's feeling stressed, saying: 'I really needed to hurt myself. It was a sort of punishment.'

Gail also said: 'When I felt overwhelmed, confused, more messed-up than usual, in my lowest moods I'd reach for the blade again. And again I'd have that strange reaction of relief and pain, always with a kind of self-loathing that seems to feed on itself.'

In her book Laid Bare: My Story Of Love, Fame And Survival she describes one particularly gruesome incident where she hacked at her arm with a
miniature saw.

She had been on holiday to the Maldives in 2005 with ex-boyfriend James Lloyd so she could recuperate from her first suicide attempt.

At the end of the trip, Porter, dreading her looming divorce from Dan Hipgrave, took the saw and hacked through her arm.

Difficult split: Porter took an overdose in 2003 following the breakdown of her marriage with Dan Hipgrave


She said: 'Blood was pouring out and there was other stuff too - shreds of skin and muscle.' She was rushed to hospital where she had 10 stitches.

Her mental issues have no doubt been exacerbated problems in her personal life, including divorce and the loss of her hair.

In June 2004 her marriage to Dan Hipgrave ended in an acrimonious divorce, owing to a stormy three-year relationship.

She also suffered great distress when her mother died of cancer two years ago.

Soon after the overdose in 2005, Porter started losing her hair and was diagnosed with alopecia, which doctors believe was triggered by stress.

She went completely bald, although she embraced the new look and refused to wear a wig.

In 2010 her hair began to grow back, soon after getting together with current boyfriend Jonny Davies.

Although she ended up shaving her head in January when her hair started to fall out again.

In an interview with the Mail earlier this year, Porter admitted she had stopped taking the antidepressant Citalopram a year and a half earlier.

She said in February: 'I stopped taking it a year and a half ago. I didn't tell my doctor, which I know is bad. I just stopped. I've got back into fitness instead, and that's what really helped me.

'Exercise keeps me occupied, which is good for my mental health. You can go to the doctor a million times if you're feeling down, and get nowhere, but if you go for a run it makes you feel really good.'

more detail

source:dailymail