SADNESS: Loose Women’s Nadia Sawalha SHARES the struggles that left her devastated as she and husband Mark battled mental illness

Nadia Sawalha apologised moments into Loose Women today, Thursday 25 September, as she admitted to feeling “overwhelmed” while discussing her partner Mark’s mental health struggles. Following Wayne Rooney’s recent admission about how his wife, Coleen, helped him through his struggles with alcohol and saved his life, the panellists discussed supporting their partners. Nadia shared: “Mark does have mental health issues, and I support him through that from a position of, ‘I’m so lucky, I don’t go through it’.

“So when he’s low it can be very hard, but it’s not as hard as what he’s going through. I’ll support him, I’ll help him see pinholes of light when it’s very dark, and… sorry, I don’t know why I just got overwhelmed there.”

Composing herself, she continued: “I just have so empathy and sympathy for people that struggle with addiction and mental health. It’s not an easy swipe this way or that.”

She added that she’s co-dependent with Mark, saying that after meeting him, it took a while to recognise his addiction struggles.

“I’d already seen his heart and his soul and his beautiful brain and all those things.

“If you say it’s managing or rescuing, there was no choice because I was already there with who he was.”

Nadia has previously spoken about Mark suffering from depression, telling Hello! in 2022: “We’ve been married for almost twenty years, and I would say it’s only really in the last few years that I’ve fully understood what living with depression means.

“I will be honest, a couple of decades ago I was from the school of thought that said: ‘Think positively and cheer up’. Why wouldn’t I have been? I had never had a conversation, read a book or ‘knowingly’ met anyone with depression.”

She added: “In sickness and in health is one of my favourite vows and I take it very seriously. Knowing I can ease some of his pain by just being constant and kind is a privilege. Don’t get me wrong it’s incredibly tough at times for me but never as tough as it is for him.”

The couple married in 2002 and share two daughters together.