Rylan Clark has revealed his heart stopped twice and had to be restarted by doctors after the breakdown of his marriage.
The Celebrity Gogglebox star, 33, was reportedly rushed to hospital when his heart failed and had to be given an injection to keep him alive. His health problems came amid a difficult time for the TV presenter, when his six-year marriage to husband Dan Neal broke down and he was forced to take a five-month break from work.
Speaking at London’s Royal Festival Hall to promote the launch of his new book Ten: The Decade That Changed My Future, Rylan said: “Twice last year I ended up in the back of an ambulance because my heart failed. I just remember the shot going in and all of a sudden this feeling from the middle of your body, both ways, almost takes you over, and you just stop and my heart stopped.
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“There's just seven faces and this bright light just looking at me. And then I took a breath and they were like, ‘He's in a normal rhythm’.
“I was like, ‘What the f**k is going on?’”
Amid his health scare, Rylan’s heart rate soared to a dangerously fast 248 BPM, more than double the upper limit of an average heart rate, which sits between 60 and 120 BPM. He added his family believed he was simply suffering from a broken heart, but he was convinced it was something serious, saying: “I didn't just get mentally ill, I got physically ill.
“I knew it wasn’t right. It turned out that my heart had to be restarted. I remember laying in resus and I had all these pads on with all these wires and not understanding what it was.
“It was only afterwards that I said, ‘What was the pads for?’ And they said, ‘If you didn’t take your breath... because we would have had to restart you electrically.”
In June, the Daily Star reported how Rylan revealed the real reason for his Celebrity Gogglebox absence last year after his mum Linda “took the fall.” The former X Factor star appeared on This Morning alongside his mother, who at the time was said to be suffering from Crohn’s Disease which caused the pair to take a break from the Channel 4 show.
Host Alison Hammond said: “There was a little bit of a break. You wasn’t very well, Linda, how are you now?”
Linda replied: “Well, it wasn't me that wasn't well.”
Rylan then added: “It wasn’t, it was actually me. She’s always taking the fall for her son.”
Rylan is currently touring the UK to promote his autobiography, with appearances and signings in Liverpool, Manchester, London and Glasgow.
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