IN the past couple of months, some of Britain’s biggest celebrities have chosen to release warts-and-all exposés about their rollercoaster lives.
David Beckham, Tyson Fury and Robbie Williams have enjoyed massive highs filled with adoration, which have helped to put millions into their bank accounts.
But between them, these talented but troubled souls have also had crushing lows including depression, death threats, suicidal thoughts, alcoholism, drug abuse, cheating and OCD.
Much of it they blame on their chosen career path and being in the spotlight.
I would never want to belittle those problems and they should be applauded for discussing them.
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But surely during their carefully airbrushed programmes — which are now becoming a Netflix norm — they should have answered the questions we all really want to know: If you could go back in time would you change it?
Would you give it all up, would you live a normal, mundane life out of that spotlight that you seemingly adore?
Would you swap your massive mansions, supercars and five-star lifestyles for a terrace in Stoke or Leytonstone?
And would you be happy with a normal job like a nurse, a plumber or a cleaner, worrying about paying the bills? I very much doubt it.
Because they know normal people have to face demons too. They just don’t get paid by Netflix to do it.
Tyson Fury’s Kardashian-style series, At Home With The Furys, was the first to be aired.
It detailed the Gypsy King’s luxurious life but also his struggles after originally retiring from the ring.
How he’d become so absorbed in the intense world of boxing that whenever he stepped outside of it, he couldn’t cope.
How he faced anxiety and depression, substance abuse and suicidal thoughts.
The documentary, Beckham, showed David’s football highs and life with Victoria.
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It featured his celebrity friends and passion for cars.
But it also told of the depression, the vile death threats and harassment he endured after his infamous red card at the 1998 World Cup.
Intoxicating career
It also highlighted his OCD by zooming in on his wardrobe filled with clothes that are probably worth more than your average semi.
And then the show Robbie Williams aired this week.
It was recorded in the singer’s beautiful, gigantic house in America with its perfectly mowed lawns.
But he oddly chose to do the interview from his bed, wearing nothing but a vest and Versace undies.
Footage showed him wide-eyed on drugs as he struggled with fame.
He detailed how he was forced to go on stage when he was so clearly, heartbreakingly, anxious and unfit to work.
Robbie told how he had been plunged into an adult world at 16 and made mistakes because he was too young to cope with everything that came with that intoxicating career.
We are all plunged into an adult world at some point. But for many of us, that is on an average wage.
And for all the problems these men have had to face, struggling for cash isn’t one of them.
They have amassed vast fortunes in their chosen careers which ordinary mortals can only dream about — the sort of wealth that has helped cushion some of their difficulties and is totally beyond the grasp of most people.
But when revealing all about their lives on their Netflix shows, it was clear that wasn’t something they were keen to talk about.
CUPPA CAN’T HELP
I APPLAUD Captain Tom’s daughter, Hannah Ingram-Moore.
Not for taking the £800,000 from books that the late Army veteran wrote, obviously.
But for her sheer brass-neck attitude.
After she built a spa pool in the grounds of her home without planning permission, she tried to win over her neighbours by inviting them around to use her facilities.
Retired neighbour Pam Bushby said: “She has tried to get everyone on side by saying she wanted us old folk to go and sit in it and have a cup of tea in the building.”
Her plan backfired and she has lost a planning application appeal against the demolition of the unauthorised home spa.
It just shows that a cup of tea really can’t solve everything.
DUTY CALLS
ON Wednesday, I went to Manchester Piccadilly train station to buy a poppy to replace the one I’d lost.
There were barely any sellers in any stations that day because they were scared after a volunteer veteran was “punched and kicked” at a pro-Palestine rally while trying to fundraise.
I donated online instead. But it’s not the same as visibly showing your support, is it.
By Thursday, they’d returned, defying fears of demonstrations and violence, that sadly came true today.
So will those sellers have the courage next year? The Royal British Legion is already asking for volunteers.
Maybe those of us who can should do our bit.
WHAT an amazing young woman Aliyah Tariq is.
She was sacked from New York Diner in Manchester, after claiming a chef had repeatedly suggested she perform a sex act on him.
The company then tried to claim she signed paperwork saying no sexual harassment had taken place.
At 16, she represented herself at an employment tribunal and proved the paperwork was fabricated.
It made her one of the youngest people to win a victimisation case in Britain. She was awarded £18,000.
So courageous, so well deserved.
Girls Aloud comeback so sad with no Sarah
GIRLS Aloud are making a comeback.
It is so obviously heartbreaking for the singers – and their fans – that Sarah Harding isn’t going to be with them.
Especially when the video to the first single in 11 years will see the girls playing superhero characters in Wonder Woman-style costumes and capes.
Just imagine how much fun Sarah would have had making that.
I FELT GRILL AT EASE
I CAN’T wait for I’m A Celeb next weekend.
I think Britney Spears’ estranged sister, actress and singer Jamie Lynn, will have amazing anecdotes and revelations about the singer that we will all want to hear.
I also imagine she will be fine with the food on offer, too.
I once went to Kentwood in Louisiana, where the sisters grew up, to meet Britney’s lovely, down-to-earth first husband, who she married for a nano second in Las Vegas.
He and his adorable grandparents invited me to stay for a barbecue after our interview.
I eagerly accepted, until I was told we were having a barbecued raccoon and swiftly made an excuse to get out of there.
I will pretty much eat anything, but that was a step too far.
COLEEN ROONEY has revealed her mates chased call girl Jenny Thompson down the street branding her a “cheeky b***h”.
She says Jenny and another escort milked their time with her husband.
Let’s be honest here. Those two girls were simply doing the jobs they’d been paid to do.
They really weren’t the ones at fault, were they?
SHOW SCENTS
IF there’s one thing that really grates on me it’s kids’ designer clothes.
Either bought by the super-rich or those who want to desperately look like the super-rich.
Now Dior has brought out a baby perfume. It says the perfume, at £230 for 100ml, is baby’s “very first step into fragrance”.
I say it’s bloody ridiculous.