Professor Green thinks anxiety has caused his hernia

22 July 2016

Professor Green believes his "massive hernia" has been caused by anxiety.

Professor Green

The 32-year-old rapper has been suffering from the painful ailment - which is the exiting of a bodily organ from the wall of the cavity that holds it - for several months and needs to have an operation to have it corrected.

Green thinks he has his hernia due to his anxiety problems - something his late father suffered with - which manifest physically in the stomach area of his body, a physical weak spot for him due to a childhood operation.

In an interview on BBC Radio 2, the 'Just Be Good To Green' hitmaker - real name Stephen Manderson - said: "I have a lot of anxieties. People always use the word hard but there's a real difference between being hard and being strong and I've been strong but hard isn't me, I'm quite a gentle person.

"When I was a kid, I was always like, 'Nan, I've got a stomach ache,' and she would sympathise and let me take time off school. My only problem at school was attendance; I was a very bright kid. And we would go to the doctor and I had all sorts of tests but we never uncovered any kind of physical element and that was because with timing and age and understanding I learned it was actually just anxiety but as a four or five year old you don't go, 'Nan, I'm really anxious, just about the world.'

"I did have a big operation when I was six weeks old so I do think I carry a lot of tension in that area because of that as well. I've actually got a massive hernia - whoop de do."

Green has spoken in the past about how his father Peter Maderson killed himself, and has campaigned for men to talk about their problems more. He even wrote the song 'Lullaby' about his own battle with depression.

Green - who is separated from his wife Millie Mackintosh - previously said: "With men it's such a difficult subject, and we don't like building men safe spaces. It's difficult because a lot of the time the solutions people come up with are quite feminised and you still want to feel like a man, you don't want to be anymore emasculated than you already are because a lot of the time men feel emasculated just by feeling insecure about something."

It's not the first time Green has had hernia problems.

In 2011, he wrote on Twitter: "I can't wait till this blemmin hernia is fixed so i can sort my life out and get in proper shape. watching what you eat is so boring (sic)"