Kelly Brook would down apple cider vinegar to not get coronavirus

Kelly Brook has revealed that during lockdown she suffered crippling anxiety.

The 40-year-old admitted that she would get up in the night fearing she had coronavirus – then guzzle vinegar in the belief it would cure her.

The celebrity, who describes herself as ‘a germophobe’, said she often got so anxious in the night she’d become breathless and convince herself she had Covid-19.

While boyfriend Jeremy Parisi, 34, was asleep she’d sit on the kitchen floor and start downing apple cider vinegar, believing it was some sort of cure-all.

The TV star and radio presenter also admitted that her fear of germs meant the first thing she did when she started presenting for Heart at Global Radio was clean the studio’s kitchen from top to bottom.

Talking about lockdown on Vicky Pattison’s podcast, The Secret To Surviving Isolation, Brook said: ‘It has been scary. I’ve never really suffered with anxiety but my anxiety during lockdown went through the roof.

‘I was getting up in the middle of the night, having to go and sit in the kitchen and breathe because we just didn’t know what was going to happen, if we had it, if we didn’t have it. It was just awful.’

Asked if she had any techniques for coping with her anxiety attacks, she replied: ‘I’d never really had it before – only when I get in a lift, but that only ever lasts one floor and then I’m out and then I’m fine.

‘You get that sudden hot flush of “I can’t get out”.’

‘I’m claustrophobic so it was that trapped feeling. It would come on at night and I was really conscious of my breathing.

‘Because coronavirus is all about not being able to breathe I was thinking that I had coronavirus because I couldn’t breathe, so there was this element of not knowing what was coronavirus and what was anxiety and just trying to figure it out.

‘I would go and sit in the kitchen, I would drink some apple cider vinegar, which sounds crazy, but I just think that kills all germs.

‘And then I would have some water and then I’d sit on the floor, boil the kettle and have some herbal tea and just breathe and try to meditate and focus on lovely things.

‘And then after about 15 minutes I’d calm myself down and go back to bed but I can’t imagine how crippling that must be for people who have it all the time.’

Brook admitted she is now enjoying distancing and the increased levels of hygiene and sanitation in shops as it has lessened her innate fear of germs.

‘I was a bit of a germophobe anyway…,’ she said. 

‘I went into Whole Foods the other day and I was like “oh this is great, there’s no one here and that woman is behind a screen”. 

‘It’s sad but I’m actually quite enjoying it, because it’s not just coronavirus, it’s every other disease and germ I don’t want to get.

‘When I first started working at Global radio I remember going in – and I’d never been in an office environment- and I went into the kitchen and obviously everyone just puts their cups and plates everywhere.

‘They had cleaners that come round three or four times a day but I got culture shock so the first thing I would do on a Saturday morning was go in the kitchen and I’d have to clean the whole kitchen before the show.

‘I got obsessed with it – I thought I have to clean up before I do my show. They were like “what is she doing?”.

‘I was used to having my own space so when all of a sudden you’re sharing your space quite intimately, it was a real weird thing for me.

‘I’d go in and I could smell people, and I was like “what’s that smell?” and my producer was like “that’s just people, Kelly” and I didn’t like it, I wanted to open a window – it was so embarrassing.’