Heston Blumenthal thought 'TV was talking to him' during crushing health struggle

In May last year, the TV chef revealed that he had been diagnosed with the mental health condition, which causes extreme changes in a person’s mood that can last for a few days or a few weeks at a time.

At the time, he said: ‘I hope that being open about my own mental health will raise awareness of the issue and I want to campaign to highlight the contribution neurodiversity can make to the workplace.’

Now, the 58-year-old – who has been announced as an ambassador for the charity Bipolar UK – has shed further light on how the condition has affected his life, saying that being sectioned was the ‘best thing that could have happened’ to him.

On Friday, Heston appeared on BBC Breakfast, where he told presenters Charlie Stayt and Naga Munchetty about his experiences.

‘One of the classic symptoms of bipolar is you can start hallucinating things, so I hallucinated a gun on the table. I was talking about suicide. So you have suicidal thoughts,’ he said while sitting on the sofa in the BBC studio.

‘The actual percentage of people who commit suicide I think is really quite high.’

He continued, stating: ‘I also thought the TV was talking to me. This wasn’t all the time but it was getting greater and greater. And being sectioned was the best thing that could have happened to me.’

Charlie, 62, brought up the fact that it was Heston’s wife, Melanie Ceysson, who had him sectioned.

‘I can only imagine… that’s a very, very difficult thing to do I would imagine,’ the BBC presenter said.

Heston responded: ‘For her it was really difficult. She had to decide how I would take it. My response was I embraced it.’

In November, the chef told The Times what it was like when his wife had him sectioned, which occurred the previous year.

‘It took more than a few extreme moments of manic behaviour for my wife to put me in hospital. It got to the point where if she hadn’t done something about it, I wouldn’t be here,’ he told the publication.

‘With all the manic highs and lows, it’s so hard for the people around you. I can’t keep waking her up because I’ve got this idea for an electric mattress that can lead you to the toilet in the middle of the night.’

BBC Breakfast airs every day from 6am on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

Bipolar UK offers support to anyone affected by bipolar with their free UK-wide services – peer support line, peer support groups and eCommunity – and resources, including their Could it be bipolar? information and Mood Tracker app.