The actress, who played Whitney Dean in the soap for 16 years, is coming out of her shell on the ITV reality show, according to her mum and biggest fan Jennifer
Shona McGarty’s mum Jennifer believes the former EastEnders star is beating her anxiety demons on I’m A Celebrity.
There was a moment in the jungle when the Whitney Dean actress had a quiet conversation with Ruby Wax about her anxiety that convinced her she was doing well.
Jennifer said: “I could see little Shona’s face light up, as she thought ‘oh good. I am actually smashing this….I am doing it. I am coping,’”
Watching thousands of miles away from home, Jennifer said she knew that look on her daughter’s face straight away.
She said: “It was a weight off our minds. We know her really well, and you can tell when she is smiling and if it is genuine, and when it is not. She has been naturally herself, which she always said she would be.”
Shona’s anxiety has been a real presence in her life. Speaking before entering the jungle, the 34-year-old said her mental health had been “pretty bad” over the last four or five years.
And she confessed to being scared that her anxiety “might rear its ugly head” in the camp.
Jennifer said: “Of course it’s hard to watch any of your children, or anybody you know, go through anxiety but she did the right thing…she recognised it and went and got medical help, which is what everybody should do.
“You do not suffer alone. There are things that can be done, and you learn to cope with it, and it is only a small part of Shona that does not define her at all.”
Meanwhile, I’m A Celebrity’s Angry Ginge claimed he’d be channelling his inner Ben Stokes, according to his family. The streaming star is intending to emulate his fellow redhead’s never-say-die attitude to smash trials in the jungle while England do the same in the Ashes.
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