Charlotte Crosby has opened up about a secret battle with prenatal depression.
The Geordie Shore star, who is 32 weeks pregnant, has praised her boyfriend Jake Anker who was supported her through the “scary” period of low mood.
She says it lasted almost two weeks and struggled to find anyone to talk to for advice after having “no enthusiasm to get out of bed”.
Charlotte initially kept her “dark” feelings a secret from everyone, including boyfriend Jake, and tried anonymous online forums for help.
The 32-year-old reality TV star says she couldn’t understand why she was suddenly feeling so low during the bout of depression which lasted 10 days.
“I was really down and I’d never felt that way before,” she told OK! magazine. “It was like I had a constant dark cloud over my head. I had no enthusiasm to get out of bed some days – I couldn’t even speak to my boyfriend.
“I couldn’t understand why I felt so down when I should have been so happy. It was scary because I couldn’t find anybody who had ever spoken about it, and I didn’t know who to reach out to to get advice from.
“I was on all these forums trying to get a reply from all these random people, but nobody ever replied. Still, I saw that it was common. Your body is going through all these changes, and your hormones are all over the place.”
After 10 days had passed, Charlotte says she suddenly began feeling better and her overall mood and energy started to improve.
She says the second she opened up and told Jake how she was feeling, she instantly felt better.
“He didn’t know what to say but it was just better for me to let that out,” she admitted.
Charlotte says that she is still struggling with some “vaginal pain” and is finding her lack of mobility hard to manage, saying she can’t wait to get back into shape once she has recovered.
The revelations come after her wild baby shower that didn’t finish until 4am.
In true Geordie Shore style, the chaotic party, held at Charlotte’s Sunderland mansion, included drinking games, music and challenges on August 20.
Thirty guests, made up of fellow Geordie Shore stars, including Sophie Kassai, Holly Hagan, Marnie Simpson and Nathan Henry, started partying at around 3pm.
Charlotte planned the entire event herself and even had a TV crew from BBC Three filming – so the stress was being piled on.
She was forced to abandon an epic assault course set up in the garden as the party was brought inside due to a torrential downpour.
Amongst guests were In The Style owners Adam Frisby and Jamie Corbett, five girlfriends Charlotte’s known since school, her glam squad and mum Letitia Crosby, who was joined by Jake’s mum, Natalie Barr.
Dodging the drink, for obvious reasons, she admitted feeling a bit of FOMO watching her pals get black-out drunk into the early hours of the morning.
She admitted she was more than happy to avoid the hangover the following day.
Despite her guests partying until 4am, Charlotte says she slipped off at around midnight without anyone noticing.
Boyfriend Jake arrived home and stayed with all the party guests to make sure they got to their beds safely – with most staying at the couple’s home.
Charlotte says everyone was very ill the next day, but that didn’t stop the reality TV star cooking everyone a big fry-up, setting them up for the day.
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