Legendary TV host Jeff Stelling has opened up about his daughter's battle with anorexia.
Stelling, 69, has been widely praised for his work raising awareness of eating disorders and campaigning for more support for the mental health condition in recent years.
In 2023, Stelling spoke out about football on Saturday, hitting out at the government's “lack of awareness and funding” on the issue, labeling it a “national disgrace”.
He later spoke more about the topic in an interview with The athleticwhere Stelling opened up about how 'a friend' was struggling with an eating disorder.
“Years and years ago, I thought, 'How can it be a disease?' “He told The Outlet. 'I was one of these misinformed people who felt like it was all about vanity and it wasn't a mental health issue. But obviously it's a massive mental health issue.'
'And there's something inside them telling them that's where they need to be. That weight is a fate worse than death. And I mean that literally.
Jeff Stelling has opened up about his daughter's battle with Anorexia
Stelling previously won widespread applause for speaking about the condition on television in 2023
'And I can relate to this because my friends did too. He said that, with his daughter, they would sit outside her room at night with their ears to the door to try to say that she was still alive. Wondering if she would be alive in the morning.
And now, according to the sunStelling has given more details about what he and his daughter, Olivia, have been through.
The 69-year-old previously said how a 'friend' was the struggling individual, but spoke last year that Olivia was now happy for him to reveal the 'friend' was in fact her.
The outlet reported how the 21-year-old spent months in hospital as she battled the mental health condition and Stelling explained how she became 'skeletal' in her figure.
Visiting and supporting her daughter, Stelling went on to explain how she was left “heartbroken” to see other girls who left in wheelchairs without the energy to walk.
The TV host also explained how Olivia's condition is improving and that she is now doing well as a student, although he highlighted the ongoing battle patients face.
The latest comments in the sun come after Stelling, who has also raised awareness of the issue in parliament, opened up heartbreakingly to Times Radio in November.
“I still get people saying to me, 'Give them a good meal,' and I feel like punching people who say that because I know the impact an eating disorder can have on the person involved and the family involved,” she said.
Stelling's latest comments come after he heartbreakingly opened up to Times Radio last year
Stelling has raised awareness of eating disorders and campaigned for more support
'It's something I feel incredibly strong about. My daughter was…suffers from an eating disorder and to paint the big picture, she was 34kg, had a BMI of 13.5 and was dying.
'If you told her unless you eat, you will die, she (would say) okay, I would rather die than eat. I'd rather die than be fat.
'And she would see on the Internet, horrible photos of other girls who had eating disorders. Her BMI was 13.5 and her goal was to reach 12.5, but the task of finding help was incredibly difficult. I mean incredibly difficult.
'We found that doctors didn't really know how to cope. Hospitals certainly didn't. When we got to the stage where we simply had to find a hospital for ourselves because our local GP had basically said that your organs can fail at any moment, we were turned away by many famous establishments.
Stelling continued: 'They said his BMI was 13.5, we can't take anyone with a BMI that low. We finally went to a private hospital, The Nightingale in London, that would take her.
“And we were lucky, because the head psychiatrist said 'these are the costs, we don't want you to rearrange the house.' Well, of course, we would have rearranged the house if necessary.
'But the costs were phenomenal and I was lucky because I've had a very well-paid job over the years. Without that I don't know what people do.
“The alternative was that she would be cut up and taken to God knows where.”