Heston Blumenthal has opened up about his experience living with bipolar disorder, admitting that being sectioned by his wife was the "best thing" that could have happened to him.
The 58-year-old restaurateur, known for presenting Channel 4 shows Heston's Fantastical Food and Heston's Feasts, was diagnosed with the mental health condition in November 2023.
© ShutterstockNow, the TV chef has taken on a new role as an official ambassador for Bipolar UK, using his platform to raise awareness and support others facing similar challenges.
According to the NHS, a person can be detained, also known as sectioning, under the Mental Health Act (1983) and can be treated without their agreement as they "need urgent treatment for a mental health disorder and are at risk of harm to themselves or others".
On Friday's BBC Breakfast, Heston opened up about his bipolar symptoms, saying he "hallucinated a gun on the table," was "talking about suicide," and "thought the TV was talking to me".
© GettyHe added: "This wasn't all the time, but it was getting greater and greater, and being sectioned was the best thing that could happen to me."
The TV star said it "was really difficult" for his wife, French businesswoman Melanie Ceysson, who he married in 2023. "She had to decide how I would take it and… my response was, I embraced it, but I never thought I was going to be diagnosed as being bipolar, (and) I thought at the time, the highs and the lows were normal, but they weren't," he added.
"And they weren't right for me, and they weren’t right for the people around me that… cared for me."
© Photo: Getty ImagesHeston went on to say that "there was a 20-year period where (my imagination) was running riot in a positive way," noting his out of the box creations he made while helming the three Michelin-starred restaurant The Fat Duck and coming up with recipes for bacon ice cream and triple-cooked chips.
"I've also got (behaviour condition) ADHD, and the combination of those two – they compound things," he continued. "So I don’t know how much of my bipolarism, let's say, contributed to all the creativity or not.
"And even though the lows are low, you can have mixed, mixed moments as well. Someone asked the other day: If there was a button I could press to turn off my bipolar – would I press it? No, I wouldn't, because it's part of me."
Heston confessed when he looks back to before he was sectioned, he realised that "a lot of things I did were slightly bizarre or quite extreme, and they weren’t, they weren't right".
He added: "This is a really big thing, because every person… that has bipolar, there was a big group of people around them that have to live with it, which is a big thing.
"So I thought that everything was normal, only since the medication, and coming out of hospital, and I’ve done a lot of work on myself, I can look back and see how extreme things got."
The chef revealed he was in a "lucky position to give something back" as he becomes the ambassador for the charity, and hopes to change perceptions in his new role.
According to Bipolar UK, bipolar is an episodic disorder characterised by sometimes extreme changes in mood and energy which has the highest risk of suicide of any mental health condition.
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