Natasha Kaplinsky was "incapacitated by tears" after her horrific boat accident.
Natasha Kaplinsky
The 46-year-old newsreader nearly lost her life whilst on holiday in Corfu last year, when a leak in the fuel pipe of a boat she had hired caused the vehicle to explode while she and her family were on-board, leaving her nine-year-old daughter Angelica with facial burns.
Natasha has now admitted that before undergoing eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing treatment (EMDR), to try and help her recover from the psychological trauma of the accident, she had blamed herself for the explosion and "couldn't bear" to see her daughter "suffering so much".
In an interview with The Times newspaper, she said: "I felt it was our fault, we shouldn't have been on that boat. I couldn't bear to see our daughter suffering so much. I was incapacitated by tears. I just couldn't get a grip. The treatment sounded ludicrous, but after just a few sessions I was able to function again."
The broadcaster - who also has 10-year-old son Arlo with her husband Justin Bower - went on to explain that prior to her treatment, the memory of her family on the ship "wouldn't leave" her mind.
She said: "I was on a burning boat with everybody I loved, my parents, my husband, my children. I couldn't leave that memory. It wouldn't leave me. It felt biblical."
Natasha had previously recorded an episode of BBC's 'Who Do You Think You Are?' where she discovered the majority of father's Jewish ancestors had been massacred by the Nazis, leading her to become part of Britain's new Holocaust Commission where she interviewed 112 of the last Holocaust survivors.
She said: "The majority of my father's family were burnt alive in a synagogue. So I felt like I was on a mission."
Speaking of testimonies she's heard, she said: "That was horror. I'm very aware that people go through far worse, where people don't live."
Natasha revealed that she felt compelled to speak about her ordeal after hearing the hours of testimony as well as her own family's story.
She said: "It unleashed the heartache that I stored inside."
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