Claire Richards previously opened up about going through the perimenopause and the “horrendous” symptoms she endured.
The 48-year-old singer shot to fame as a member of iconic pop group Steps in the late 1990s. Since then, Claire has remained booked and busy, appearing on the likes of Celebrity Big Brother and Celebrity Catchphrase, which airs today (November 22).
However, in recent years, behind the scenes, Claire has been battling the perimenopause, with Claire previously sharing that it left her feeling “awful” and struggling to breathe.
Claire Richards’ ‘horrendous’ perimenopause symptoms
In 2023, Claire opened up about battling the perimenopause. She recalled an ordeal she went through while appearing on The Masked Singer that same year.
“I started getting perimenopause symptoms and I was like: ‘Hold on a second, I don’t like this.’ When I was doing The Masked Singer, the anxiety was horrendous,” she told the Mirror.
The pop star went on: “I was having the worst palpitations, pounding through my neck. I didn’t feel I could give it my best at all.”
Feel like you’re shrivelling up from the inside out.
Claire, who is mum to kids Charlie and Daisy with husband Reece, said: “You kind of feel like you’re shrivelling up from the inside out. It took me a long time to address it. It’s a milestone, isn’t it?”
The perimenopause takes place before the menopause and marks the end of a woman’s reproductive years. It also causes hormonal changes in women’s bodies.
The singer went on to share that she managed her hot flushes and mood swings by using HRT oestrogen spray.
‘I would feel this rage and anxiety’
Claire also spoke about the crippling perimenopause symptoms in an interview with Closer from 2023. “I started to feel absolutely exhausted and my anxiety was out of control. I also got these rages out of nowhere,” Claire candidly revealed.
She added: “I’m not usually confrontational at all, but every time I got in the car I thought I was going to kill somebody.
“My poor kids! I was beeping and shouting at people and telling them they shouldn’t be on the road. I would feel this rage and anxiety in the pit of my stomach and it would creep up and out and it was hard to breathe. It was awful.”
Watch Claire on Celebrity Catchphrase on Saturday (November 22) at 7:00pm on ITV1.
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