Jay Blades tried to take his own life when his charity lost funding and his marriage broke down.
Jay Blades hit rock bottom
The 'Repair Shop' star and his then-wife Jade ran an organisation called Out of the Dark - which trained disadvantaged young people in furniture restoration - but it lost its backers seven years ago, putting strain on their marriage, and leaving the 52-year-old DIY expert with no idea who to turn to.
He recalled: “When you’re running a charity that helps and supports people, the worst thing you can do – I thought at the time – is ask those people for help. It’s almost like, ‘hold on, if I have to help you, how are you going to help me?’ so I decided that I couldn’t ask anybody for help.
“And there was all this pressure on me, the relationship and business had folded and I was like, right, what do you do? Get in the car, and just drive.”
Jay drove up the M40, determined to take his own life by crashing into a bridge.
He recalled to the Daily Telegraph newspaper: “I didn’t see myself in tomorrow. I didn’t have anything to continue for.”
Crash barriers around the bridge supports stopped Jay driving into them so he ended up driving to a retail park, where he slept in his car for a week in a dae which felt "like 10 times' worth of jet lag". When he went to check into a hotel, his credit card triggered an alert to those who were looking for him and a team of police and mental health nurses arrived to assess him, but the presenter instead went to stay with a friend.
Shortly afterwards, Jay's TV career began with 'Money For Nothing' but he thinks it is 'The Repair Shop' that has ultimately helped to "fix" him.
Asked if there's anything he'd take along to be fixed on 'The Repair Shop', he said: “No, they’ve done it already, and we’re still working on it – me. They’re still working on me. I’m the one that needs to be fixed. And I think all of us at The Repair Shop – we need to be fixed, but I’m the one that’s most vocal about it.”