Louis Walsh quietly faced his mental health in the Celebrity Big Brother home and had to be checked by medics multiple times.
The former X Factor judge, 71, demonstrated a divisive presence on the ITV reality show, as he happily shared behind-the-scenes gossip but also insulted former acts, sparking a new dispute with Jedward.
He reached the finals of the 2024 series, ultimately losing to David Potts, and caused one final controversy when he tapped Oti Mabuse on the backside in a post-final celebration.
Louis has now admitted he struggled behind the scenes, and suffered from panic attacks at night, requiring medics to rush in and help him.
In a new interview, he explained that housemates were not allowed to do anything at a certain time of night, and as he suffered from insomnia he would wake up at three or four in the morning and have to lie there worrying about what he had said the day before.
‘Worrying about my mother, my health, what I had said that day – for the first time ever, I suffered from anxiety,’ he told The Sun.
‘I was awake, panicking. The night times scared me.’
He praised the ‘brilliant’ medics who are on call at all times, saying they ‘calmed me down after I started having a panic attack,’ speaking to them through an earpiece.
Louis admitted he has never undergone therapy before and it was ‘the first time ever’ he had used the mental health aid, deciding against therapy even when he received a blood cancer diagnosis.
The County Mayo native revealed during his sting on CBB that he had been diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer some years earlier, which he had kept a secret.
His friend, musician Linda Martin, later told The Sunday World that the Irish star was ‘ very, very ill, seriously ill’.
‘He’s still on medication and I think he probably will be for the rest of his life.’
‘He went through hell with the tests they had to do it was quite serious for some time. He lost so, so much weight. It was scary…it affected his bones and he was sore and his feet were sore,’ she recalled.
Louis told Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu and Levi Roots that he was diagnosed with the disease 2020 during the lockdown, saying ‘I was sick. Nobody knew I was sick.’
The boy band manager was then asked if he had Covid-19, to which he replied: ‘No, I had cancer.’
‘A mild version, a rare one,’ he added, saying it was cancer in his blood.
‘I didn’t even know I had it, so I went to the hospital and they checked me… and then they found it.’
Louis assured the pair that his cancer is now ‘gone’.
However, he still struggles on a psychological level, and said he has ‘blocked it out’ but still feels sick when he passes by a hospital.
