Richard Osman has shared heartwrenching details about his addiction to food.
House of Games star Richard, 53, said he has battled overeating since the age of nine. The former Pointless presenter revealed during a podcast appearance that his struggle has been “absolutely ever-present in my life”.
And Richard also described how turning to food was one way he tried to cope with heartache as a child after his father left the family home following an affair.
Richard Osman on his food addiction
Speaking on Elizabeth Day’s podcast How To Fail, Richard reflected: “It’s so ridiculous, this food stuff.”
He explained: “Alcoholics will tell you the same. Like it’s absurd that there’s a bottle of vodka in front of you or there’s a packet of crisps in front of you and it’s more powerful than you. It makes no sense.”
Richard also pondered how judging people’s behaviour can be unwise as: “We’ve all got human minds and we’re all crazy in slightly different ways.”
He went on: “That’s my version of it since I was probably nine years old. It’s been absolutely ever-present in my life — weight, food, where I am in relation to it, where I am in relation to happiness because of it, hiding it. All of that stuff, it’s been absolutely like the drum beat of my life.”
‘I don’t have any personal shame any more’
Richard has previously explained how he didn’t see his dad all that much from around the age of 10 until the TV personality and author was in his twenties.
And he feels his relationship with food changed as he processed what was happening around him.
“By and large, addiction is running away from your pain,” Richard continued.
Addiction is running away from your pain.
He went on: “So anything that can stop you thinking or numb you, or anything like that, is incredibly useful to you. As if you start thinking, you think yeah, but hold on, maybe I do miss him. Then you go, hold on, there’s some food in the fridge, I’ll have that.
“Nine-year-old me and a different version of me sort of converged at the age of nine and the bit of me that converged was fuelled by food and fuelled by secrecy and fuelled by shame and all of those things.”
Now, however, Richard – who has undergone therapy – believes he is better at coping with the issue.
“I don’t have any personal shame any more,” he added.
“Addiction is shame. You’ll over-eat, you’ll feel shame about that. Shame makes you over-eat. It’s a spiral.
“So you have to learn to absolutely just cut it off at the source, and if you do feel shame, just to go: ‘That’s all right,’ because shame leads to more shame. I have to accept that it’s not embarrassing.”
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Read more: Inside Richard Osman’s love life – from “awful” divorce to finding ‘the one’ with famous wife
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