Denise Welch has made the heartbreaking confession that she once wished a plane she was travelling in with her then-one-year-old son would crash.
The Loose Women star – who has had an ongoing battle with clinical depression – revealed that she was suddenly overcome by a particularly bad episode the night before she was due to fly to Australia to visit her then-husband, Tim Healy.
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Despite her "massive depression", Denise boarded the plane with her baby son, Matthew Healy, 32, who now fronts pop-rock band, The 1975.
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Speaking to Laura Dockrill on the Zombiemum podcast, Denise confessed that she hoped the plane would crash so she would finally be "out of this pain".
"The night before I went, this massive depression came on. I cannot tell you what it was like to go the airport and get on that plane with this depression," the TV star said.
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"When I was in the air - I told Matthew this years later when he was a grown-up, I would never have put this on any child - I wished that the plane would go down."
Denise added: "In my mind, I wished that it would because then I wouldn't have made the decision.
Denise with ex-husband Tim Healy and eldest son Matthew
"It was the point I wanted something out of my control and I thought, 'Why doesn't it just go down and then I will be out of this pain'. Now I can't believe I had those thoughts."
Denise – who also shares youngest son, Louis, 20, with ex-husband Tim – confessed during the candid conversation that the year Matthew was born was the best and worst of her life.
"1989 when I had Matthew, was the best and the worst year of my life," she admitted.
"The best, because obviously I had Matthew and he is the best thing that ever happened to me, along with Louis, but also because it was the start of my 32-year battle with clinical depression."
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