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Gail Porter shared a heartbreaking Instagram post on Sunday reflecting on her loneliness as the festive season approaches.
The TV star, 54, posted a selfie with a cap pulled down over her face as she admitted she was feeling deflated after missing out on a ticket to see her favourite band Radiohead.
‘The Sunday face when a charity you work for offers a ‘thank you’ with a ticket to one of your favourites… (clue in this post!)then messages to say… oh sorry… you can’t have the ticket now. Our bad! Oh well. Lucky I don’t cry too easily,’ she wrote.
Gail followed the post with another in which she revealed that a friend had failed to invite her over for Christmas.
‘And last moan…. I promise,’ she wrote. ‘I did a job for free recently and they offered to donate money to a charity of my choice…. Still waiting.
‘And… my friend asked what i was doing for Christmas. I said nothing planned… she suggested i do charity work. Has she any idea what I dedicate half my life to? [sad emoji] Just a hug is all i really need!’
The posts were met with an outpouring of supportive comments from followers and fellow nineties TV star Sarah Cawood, 53, also reached out, telling her friend: ‘Gail you are worth more than this! You do so much for charity; you need to do something for you.’
‘And if you’re on your own for Xmas, then come to me! It would be lovely to see you. No one spends Xmas alone on my watch xxx’
In July Gail opened up about her incredible transformation after years of heartbreak, homelessness, and health struggles, saying at the time that she was finally ‘100 per cent happy.’
The TV star lost her home, career, and confidence after a long battle with mental health issues, alopecia and bankruptcy.
The former Big Breakfast host became a household name in the 90s, but by 2011, her life had spiralled out of control.
Gail, then 40, was sectioned under the Mental Health Act and placed in a psychiatric unit, where she shared a ward with violent patients and others in extreme distress.
Talking to The Mirror, she recalled: ‘It was terrifying. I was drugged up to my eyeballs, sharing a ward with men convinced they were Jesus, and violent patients. It felt like One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.’
Just three years later, she was sleeping rough on a bench in Hampstead Heath after sofa-surfing failed to offer stability.
Despite applying for work in charity shops and libraries, she was repeatedly turned away and admitted: ‘I just wanted someone to give me a chance’.
At her lowest point, concerned loved ones contacted police, who took her to hospital for help. It marked the beginning of a slow but determined journey back from the brink.
Her fall from fame had begun in 2005 when she lost her hair due to alopecia. She famously refused to wear wigs, saying she wanted to stay authentic – but job offers dried up, and she found herself invited to unpaid appearances purely to talk about her condition.
Gail also battled anorexia and depression, and eventually filed for bankruptcy in 2017. She said: ‘I lost everything – my house, my career, my confidence.’
Since then, she’s rebuilt her life with the help of charity work, exercise, and a renewed sense of purpose.
She even picked up a BAFTA for her 2020 documentary Being Gail Porter.
These days, she’s focused on supporting others through organisations like the Samaritans and Prince William’s Homewards campaign, which aims to tackle homelessness across the UK.
Sarah, 53, meanwhile is well known as an icon of the 1990s, when she hosted the likes of Top of the Pops, Live & Kicking and the MTV dating show Singled Out.
The TV star recently hit the headlines after expressing her fear her career had peaked in an emotional video shared online.
Breaking down in tears in an Instagram video posted in September, Cawood wrote: ‘Can I be really honest? For a minute? I’m 53, I’m healthy and I have a lovely family… But I feel lost.
‘I made the mistake of doom-scrolling this morning and all my former peers are just SLAYING it… it’s hard to explain, but I just feel really… left out. It’s so silly to say that at 53, I feel jealous.’
She continued: ‘All my former TV buddies, plus new friends I’ve met, they all seem to be at events with each other, working together and THRIVING. And here’s the thing: I couldn’t be more pleased or proud of those women but I miss them… and I miss being one of them.’
Sarah went on to explain the mundane household chores that she spends much of her days conducting, and expressed a concern that she is not earning enough money.
The former TV star continued: ‘I just feel so redundant. I want to build my own brand; maybe write a book using my old diaries, but I simply don’t have time. Unless my time is spent on income-producing activities, I can’t do them: I’d work 24 hours a day and see no one.
‘I HAD my time, and it was GREAT. So maybe I should just shut up and be grateful (I AM grateful I really am! My life is so lovely and I’m so lucky, I just want a little bit more: is that greedy?) Maybe the Universe has a different plan for me.’
The post drew hundreds of messages of support from followers including Radio 2 DJ Zoe Ball, who offered to catch up with Sarah over a cup of tea.
