Note: The following article contains discussions of topics such as suicide.
Jay Blades of The Repair Shop has spoken about past mental health issues that almost led to his being admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
The TV presenter, who has fronted The Repair Shop since its launch in 2017, spoke on the Dish podcast about how he was considered for psychotic admission during a mental health breakdown in 2015, following his split from his first wife and the collapse of their joint charity Out of the Dark in High Wycombe.
“For me, everything fell apart. The business, the relationship, everything. It was a charity and we had a business as well, and then I ran it with my ex-wife,” he explained his decision to move from High Wycombe to Wolverhampton in 2015.
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“Basically, I couldn’t imagine myself being there tomorrow, if that makes sense. Because I couldn’t imagine myself being there tomorrow, this is what happened: I got in a car, drove onto the M40 and looked for a bridge to crash into.”
He explained that he instead drove to a shopping mall and stayed there for “a week” before finding a hotel to shower and eat.
After speaking with hotel staff, Blades revealed that the incident almost led to his being placed in a psychiatric hospital.
“So I got some shower gel, came back to the room and there were five people waiting for me. There was a psychiatric nurse, I think there were two, and then there was a really strict one, a kind of major, and then there were two police officers,” he continued.
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“They started interrogating me, and the whole time I was thinking, I want to take a shower, I need to take a bath, I stink. And it wasn’t until they said to me, ‘Oh, we don’t have to commit him,’ that I thought, who are you committing? Because I had spent 20 years in the community and I knew what committing was. And then they said, ‘I wanted to commit you because we thought you were harming yourself and others,’ and all that stuff.”
He added that police informed his ex-wife about the incident, after which she called a friend in Wolverhampton who picked him up and looked after him, which has since been the reason for his move to the city.
Two years later, Blades began hosting The Repair Shop, which has now run for 13 seasons. In November 2022, he married his second wife, Lisa Zbozen, in Barbados.
The repair shop will be broadcast on BBC One and streamed on BBC iPlayer.
We encourage anyone who identifies with the issues raised in this article to contact us. Information on how to access support is available via the NHSOrganisations that can offer help include Samaritan on 116 123 or Spirit on 0300 123 3393.
Readers in the United States are encouraged to mentalhealth.gov or the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
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