This Morning presenters Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard met the family of Ellen Mulvey on the show today (May 12). Ellen tragically took her own life last year after a long and secret struggle with gambling addiction.
Ellen’s sister Katie and her partner Deanne were on the sofa to tell Ellen’s story, and call for Government change to the laws around gambling.
This Morning today: Ben and Cat meet family of Ellen Mulvey
Ellen was just 44 when she died by suicide last year. After her death, an inquest revealed that she had a “long history” with gambling dating back to 2018.
Her gambling-related transactions across licensed and unlicensed operators ran into the hundreds of thousands of pounds and her bank account had been effectively emptied by the time of her death.
Ellen felt a lot of “shame” over her addiction and kept it a secret, her sister Katie revealed. Partner Deanne shared that, after her death, they discovered Ellen had registered with GamStop in a bid to control her online gambling.
However, after finding ways around the online gambling blocker, Ellen took an overdose, and died in hospital. The coroner concluded that her gambling addiction contributed to her death.
‘The most kind, caring, thoughtful person I know’
Her sister told Cat and Ben: “She was amazing. The most kind, caring, thoughtful person I know. She was fiercely independent and our biggest protector. She was everybody’s biggest cheerleader. She was an amazing big sister. She lit up a room.”
“Mental health support alone isn’t enough,” said Deanne later in the conversation. “This isn’t about willpower. These products are designed to be highly addictive. It targets the brain’s rewards system and no one’s immune to it,” Deanne added.
“It’s such a scary addiction,” said one viewer. Another commented: “Gambling’s the worst addiction. The comedowns are brutal,” another said. A third added: “This is very sad. Love to all left behind. Addiction is horrible. Their poor loved one.”
Ben and Cat host gambling addiction phone-in
Later in the show, after offering their heartfelt condolences, Cat and Ben hosted a phone-in on gambling addiction with psychotherapist Kathleen Saxton.
“Nobody is immune,” Ben reiterated at the start of the phone-in. Kathleen agreed and said: “Something can happen in our lives where we find ourselves feeling anxious, depressed and disconnected from loved ones and addiction will somehow find us.
“Addiction can have all sorts of different flavours but gambling is such a specific flavour because people think it starts as entertainment and ends up very tragically, as we’ve heard today.”
‘Not sure they should be discussing gambling addiction on this show’
However, despite Kathleen offering valuable advice to troubled callers, some This Morning viewers thought the ITV Daytime show wasn’t the correct place to air stories about gambling addiction. Many noted that the show runs its regular Spin to Win competition, as well as competitions to win cash prizes and campervans.
“The irony that they are having a phone-in for gambling addiction on #ThisMorning when all day long there are gambling ads, gambling sponsors and competitions on ITV preying on desperate people and normalising a habit which rarely ends well,” said one viewer.
“Not sure they should be discussing gambling addiction on this this show considering ITV promotes competitions and shows various gambling ads 24/7,” said one.
“And they’ll cut straight from this phone-in to their competition promotion: Texts cost £2.50 + 1 standard network rate message,” another commented. “Up next, win a campervan,” posted another. “And now tomorrow is Spin to Win Wednesday…,” said another.
“This Morning talking about gambling addiction. Pot/kettle!! They hammer their competitions every 20 minutes,” another said.
“So many gambling adverts on ITV encouraging people to play online bingo, it’s actually disgusting.” another said.
“Such hypocrites,” another viewer sadly agreed. “Somewhat ironic that the advert after was for Happy Tiger bingo,” said another.
ED! has contacted ITV for comment.
If you need help or support for gambling addiction, contact Gamble Aware here.
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