Former S Club 7 star Rachel Stevens has opened up about her mental health journey since rising to stardom in the late 1990s. 

Ms Stevens, 42, talked to ITV’s Loose Women about her relationship to fame and how therapy gave her an outlet. 

“I went into S Club feeling quite insecure, not really knowing who I was and growing up publicly,” she said on Tuesday. 

She revealed that she joined the pop band aged 19 when she was experiencing “a lot of emotional turmoil.”

“My family had all broken apart. We’d lost our home. I was just on my own quite a lot and just with my friends and working and internalised all of those things.

“I went into the band and it was so exciting and a total escape from all of that stuff, but at the same time it allowed me to push down all of the stuff even more.”

The singer said she began receiving personal therapy in her late teens and is now continuing weekly sessions.

“I’ve always been someone who’s been a worrier, someone who thinks a lot, someone who internalises things a lot and incredibly emotional and sensitive. 

“I speak to my closest friends obviously, my husband, but other than having that person who is not so close just gives me that outlet to be able to be acknowledged and make sense of it all when there’s not that emotional connection, which I think is really important.”

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