Inside McFly’s troubling psychological well being struggles …as King of The Jungle Danny Jones strikes I’m A Celeb viewers with panic assault confession
It was perhaps one of the most heart-wrenching moments of this year’s I’m A Celebrity.
Danny Jones, McFly singer and guitarist and newly-crowned King of The Jungle, told camp mates of his relentless battle with anxiety, which he’s struggled with since the age of 19.
In an emotional display last month, the popstar, 38, admitted he is ‘constantly worrying’ and revealed details of a panic attack he once suffered during a television appearance.
But Jones is not the only member of his four-piece music esemble to have had significant struggles with their mental health.
From addictions to prescription painkillers, to eating disorders, to bipolar — the loveable hit-makers have overcome significant difficulties.
One band member who has long been open about his mental health troubles is lead singer and guitarist, Tom Fletcher — husband of social media influencer and podcaster, Giovanna Fletcher.
More than a decade a go, in 2012, Fletcher, 39, wrote in the McFly autobiography of his ‘obsession’ with being ‘the fat one in the band’.
‘I wanted to lose weight, but rather than going about it the sensible way, I pretty much stopped eating. I’d go to Starbucks and order a frappuccino and blueberry muffin and that was me for the day,’ he confessed in the book, titled Unsaid Things.
Danny Jones is the second McFly member to be crowned King of the Jungle, following in the footsteps of Dougie Poynter, who won the title in 2011.
The McFly star was overcome with emotion as he discussed his mental health with his campmates, admitting he has had therapy since he was 19-years-old
‘Not only would I beat myself up internally if I consumed anything else, I’d be in a foul mood if we were working somewhere there was no Starbucks. It was an obsession – and a deeply unhealthy one.’
Fletcher also told readers of a life-changing mental health diagnosis.
In 2011, he was referred to the private psychiatric clinic, The Priory, after struggling with feelings of depression for over a year.
However, doctors there diagnosed him with bipolar disorder — a mental health condition involving extreme mood changes, such as dizzying highs and disabling lows.
In a 2020 interview, Fletcher said he’d always been ‘highly emotional’.
‘I’d feel excited one moment, then the polar opposite the next. But, I think everyone just thought that’s who I was.
‘In late 2011, I watched a documentary by Stephen Fry called The Secret Life Of The Manic Depressive. He shared his story of bipolar disorder and depression, and it sounded exactly like me. I just cried.’
He admitted being afraid to tell anyone of his emotional difficulties. ‘For a long time, I still didn’t tell anyone about it. I was later diagnosed with bipolar. When I told my friend, Harry, he said: “Ahhh, that makes so much sense.”
The four-piece band have all battled various mental health problems – from drug addiction to eating disorders.
‘Since then, more and more people have spoken out about their mental health. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.’
Fletcher has previously said that becoming a father to Buzz, 10, Buddy, eight, and Max, six, has hugely benefitted his mental health.
‘Having kids was the best thing that happened to me,’ he said in the 2020 interview, as part of a charity campaign with McDonald’s.
‘They’ve taught me more about myself than I thought was possible. Parenthood helps you be less selfish, because you don’t care about anything as much as you do them.
‘Since becoming a dad, my mental health has been in the best shape ever. Being a children’s author has been another part of that — I love seeing my kids get lost in a good book.’
Bass player Dougie Poynter has also had his fair share of psychiatric battles — and has bravely spoken publicly about them in order to offer support to others facing the same demons.
In 2012, months after the now 37 year-old was crowned King of The Jungle, Poynter appeared on Alan Carr’s Chatty Man and admitted to the host that he’d tried to kill himself the previous year, following problems with drug and alcohol addiction.
‘It’s quite therapeutic to go back, quite scary and a bit of an eye opener into how dark it can get if you take your foot off the gas and stop looking after yourself,’ Poynter said.
Dougie Poynter, pictured here in 2021, had two stints in rehab. One, in 2011, to help him detox from drugs and alcohol following a suicide attempt, and another in 2018, to tackle an addiction to Valium.
At the start of McFly, Tom’s weight ‘became an issue’ and he ‘basically just drank coffee’. Tom recalled: ‘It was so unhealthy. ‘I would struggle with down periods’ (band pictured in 2005)
Drummer Harry Judd then added: ‘Half the time you didn’t know what you were doing – it was us telling you.’
‘Yes, because I was so battered,’ Poynter replied.
However recovery wasn’t an easy journey for the Essex-born musician. Four years later he developed an addiction to the sedative painkiller Valium, which lasted for two years.
Poynter went to rehab after an intervention from his band mates, and said he thinks he agreed to go into a treatment centre without ‘kicking up a fuss’, although he can’t remember for sure.
In various interviews the star has confessed that the drug left him with ‘huge gaps’ in his memory.
Speaking about his experience of the addiction on the On The Mend podcast last year, he said: ‘When I couldn’t connect with any kind of sense of self, I didn’t know who the f**k I was anymore which was terrifying, the disconnect from myself, friends, family, I just felt like I was this lone traveller of the world that didn’t know anybody, like a f**king alien. Which was f**king terrifying.’
Drummer Harry Judd said exercise is his therapy, having struggled with anxiety for most of his adult life. Pictured here after running the 2024 London Marathon.
Izzy and Harry Judd are proud parents to Lola, 7, Kit, 5 and Lockie, 3.
Poynter is now very public about his ongoing recovery, and often shares clips with his 680,000 Instagram followers that see him reviewing booze-free drinks and bars.
The band’s drummer, Harry Judd, now 38, is no stranger to mental health struggles either.
In 2020, his wife, violinist Izzy Judd, 40, told the Daily Mail that he suffers with ‘acute episodes’ of anxiety — symptoms that Izzy experiences too.
The following year the Strictly Come Dancing champion admitted in a campaign for Mental Health Awareness week that he has ‘suffered with anxiety throughout my adult life.’
‘Anxiety can be so isolating and sometimes makes you lose yourself.
‘In those moments, I felt scared to share how I was feeling.
The star, who is a father of three, added: ‘It’s easy to forget that our mental wellbeing is every bit as important as our physical health.
‘If you break a bone, you seek medical help, yet many people are hesitant to ask for support with their mental wellbeing.
‘I completely understand the courage it takes to speak up but reaching out for help was the best thing I ever did.’
Judd’s ‘therapy’ is exercise, according to his wife. ‘He goes to the gym. If I see the signs that his anxiety is coming on, I’ll cook him a nutritious meal, get him to drink plenty of water, encourage him to go for a run.’
