HEARTBROKEN: This Morning Star Shares an Update on His Health as He Announces New Project.
Former This Monring star Matt Johnson has been open about his mental health struggles (Image: Getty)
Former This Morning star Matt Johnson has revealed his latest TV project is a sequel to his acclaimed 2017 documentary Matt Johnson: Depression and Me (Iselder a Fi), which will bring people up to date with his father’s story. In moving scenes in the original film, mental health advocate Matt, 43, who has been very open about his struggles, encouraged his father, Gary, to seek help for his own depression. Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk via Zoom from his home in Wales, the Postcode Lottery ambassador looks happy and healthy and is clearly excited as he discusses the film.
“It is kind of a sequel to a documentary I made just under 10 years ago about my living with depression. There was a scene in that where I talked to my dad about what I went through and my suicide attempt, and it was this really magical bit of film,” he recalled. “I came clean to him that one of the main reasons I talk about mental health a lot on the telly and stuff is for him to get the help that he needed, and he did. It’s been an amazing nine and a half years for him,” he smiled proudly.
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“The second part will see me talk about that with him again, and then try and meet other men, talk about their real life experiences and how to deal with grief and loss, with loneliness, stress, and all these different things. I’m trying to get a pinch of the landscape of what people are doing to try and help their mental health and get a conversation started about how we can do something to improve it.”
Matt has been very open about his own mental health issues. In December 2009, at the age of 26, he hit a breaking point where he contemplated taking his own life. While on a trip to Spain, he stood on the edge of a balcony but ultimately decided to step back. Although he returned to work as a co-presenter and news reporter for ITV Wales, and would go on to work on This Morning the following year, leaving in 2013, he continued to struggle.
He attempted to manage his condition through alternative means like exercise, yoga, and meditation, but he later sought professional therapy. One of the things he insists has been of huge benefit to him in managing his condition has been getting out in nature for walks along with his dad.
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“I do a lot of it with my father in Wales. A lot of it at the Caerphilly Mountains and the Brecon Beacons and across Wales. It’s something that I implemented that’s now a part of my life, and and I’ve seen the benefits that it’s had on me.
TV presenter Matt Johnson is an ambassador for The Postcode Lottery (Image: Postcode Lottery)
“I lived in Wales all my life, and I really took the mountains and the walks for granted. It wasn’t until I moved to London 15 years ago and was surrounded by concrete that I really realised how beautiful and how helpful these walkways and the countryside is. It doesn’t matter whether it’s in the rain or in the cold weather, or if it’s too hot…I’ve never regretted a walk,” he insists.
Given how much it has benefited him, he is thrilled to be fronting a campaign encouraging other people to get out and about in nature as a celebrity judge for The Ramblers’ Britain’s Favourite Path 2026, which gives the public the opportunity to vote for their favourite place to hike. He became involved in it through his work with the People’s Postcode Lottery, which has invested more than £26 million in The Ramblers since 2015 to help protect and champion Britain’s paths and green spaces.
Admitting he has an ulterior motive, he laughs: “Part of the is me going out on my documentary is me walking with people where they normally have their mindful walks, and I’m just going to chew the fat and steal their mental health tools if I can. So that huge list that I get to be a judge of has given me amazing ideas – my phone notes are full of places to go.
“I’ve seen the benefits that walking has had on me, and I want that for everyone else,” he said. “I think it’s an incredibly important thing. We’ve got so many amazing places to go in the UK, and we’re very proud of them. So to be part of a campaign with the wonderful Ramblers and the Postcode Lottery is like a perfect marriage of all the things that are really important to me.”
