Nicky Campbell will open up about his mental health struggles and diagnosis with bipolar disorder in upcoming memoir
- BBC 5Live presenter Nicky Campbell will open up about his bipolar disorder
- Comments on his mental health will come in a memoir called One Of The Family
- He will also talk about how being adopted has always made him feel like an outsider, his quest to trace his birth mother and the ‘crushing disappointment’ he felt when he finally met her
Nicky Campbell is to open up about his mental health struggles – including his emotional breakdown and late diagnosis with bipolar disorder.
The BBC Radio 5Live presenter, 59, is bringing out a memoir called One Of The Family, which will also focus on family, adoption, and his ‘miracle dog’ Maxwell.
He will also talk about how being adopted has always made him feel like an outsider, his quest to trace his birth mother and the ‘crushing disappointment’ he felt when he finally met her.
BBC Radio 5Live presenter Nicky Campbell (pictured) is to open up about his mental health struggles – including his emotional breakdown and late diagnosis with bipolar disorder
Campbell credits Maxwell for helping him ‘understand my adoption and identity with greater clarity and to appreciate the true meaning of family and belonging’.
Campbell previously published Blue-Eyed Son, a book about the search for his birth mother. His new memoir comes out in February. His podcast, also called One Of The Family, explores the lives of humans and dogs.
Campbell said: ‘The beauty and simplicity of Maxwell’s world has helped me re-connect to my childhood and to Candy, the first dog I loved so deeply,’ he said.
‘Through this, I was able to understand my adoption and identity with greater clarity and to appreciate the true meaning of family and belonging.’
Publisher Rowena Webb said: ‘Nicky’s courage and honesty in writing his story makes this a very special book. And it wouldn’t have happened without a very special dog called Maxwell. It’s a book for life! And I can’t wait for others to read it too.’
Campbell credits his dog Maxwell (pictured together in 2010) for helping him ‘understand my adoption and identity with greater clarity and to appreciate the true meaning of family and belonging’
According to the Bookseller, Campbell ‘will open up about how being adopted has always made him feel like an outsider; the guilt he has carried towards his Mum and Dad for needing to trace his birth mother, and the crushing disappointment he felt when he finally met her. For the first time, he will also reveal details about his emotional breakdown and how he has learned to live with a late diagnosis of bipolar disorder’.
Campbell has signed a deal with publisher Hodder & Stoughton for the memoir, out in hardback, e-book and audio in February next year.
Campbell, who has four daughters with his wife Vicky, the former head of Virgin Radio News, previously published Blue-Eyed Son, a book about the search for his birth mother.
The star, who hosts Long Lost Family with Davina McCall, was born to an unmarried Irish mother before being adopted by Frank and Sheila as a newborn. Frank died in 1996, years before Campbell explored his Scottish roots in the BBC series Who Do You Think You Are? in which he paid tribute to his ‘wonderful dad’.
‘I’m so proud of this extraordinary family I was adopted into,’ he said. ‘All the stories I’ve heard somehow all contributed to making my dad the most wonderful dad that I could have had.
‘It couldn’t have been for me more fascinating, revealing and enlightening. A family of which I am so proud and a dad of which I’m so proud. I just wish he were here to share it.’ Campbell’s mother was a member of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force stationed at Beachy Head during the Second World War where she helped to guide RAF planes to their targets.
She recalled her role in the D-Day landings on Campbell’s Breakfast show in June. She previously featured in BBC documentary Women at War: 100 Years of Service in 2017.