Alex Jones has revealed her family was “knocked for six” when her husband, Charlie Thomson, went into a “dark depression” after becoming seriously ill with Lyme Disease and viral meningitis.
The One Show presenter said she has watched her husband of seven years “fall apart” and become a “shadow of himself” due to his health issues.
She said: “It’s my husband’s own story to tell, so I won’t go into detail, but he suffers with his mental health, and we’ve just been through a really bad period where, bless him, he had Lyme Disease and then he had viral meningitis. Lots of things happened recently.
“Charlie’s super fun, but he became a shadow of himself. He was so ill; he really went downhill fast mentally.
“And again, I found myself at a loss thinking, ‘Oh my God, I don’t know what to do here’. We all talk a good game, but do we actually know how to help people?”
Speaking candidly on the How To Fail podcast, the 45-year-old admitted that, while her husband is “coming up the other side in peaks and troughs”, there was a time when she thought she was “losing him”.
She shared: “I thought I was losing him, as in not actually losing him. But I thought, ‘Oh my God, where is he? I can’t see him’.
“I was looking at him and I’m thinking, ‘I’m looking and hearing somebody who’s not my husband’.”
The BBC star revealed she struggles to understand his mental-health battle and has been honest with him in lengthy conversations.
She said: “He tries to explain it and I said, ‘Do you think I’m a terrible person because I don’t quite get it?’ And he says, ‘No, but because you’re trying to get it, I love you for that’.
“But he said it is hard to fully understand it. I listen to lots of podcasts where depression is discussed at length.
“And some of the time I feel if you’re really depressed - and I’ve seen it in the last few months - you’re not all right enough to be on a podcast. And I’m confused as to where we are.”
The couple married in 2015, and went on to have children Teddy, five, Kit, three, and Annie, 17 months.
Jones also discussed the pressure she feels to keep everything together at home, while supporting her husband through his health issues.
She added: “You feel the pressure because suddenly you’re the breadwinner, you’re the parent who is functioning.
“Just life admin is now your responsibility, plus the person you love most is falling apart in front of you and you’re trying to piece them together without proper understanding of how best to go about that.”
If you have been affected by the topics raised in this article, call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch for confidential support. See www.samaritans.org for details.
