GEMMA Collins clashes with her mother Joan in heartbreaking scenes in her documentary tonight.
The 41-year-old former Towie star opens up about self-harming in the Channel 4 film as she accuses her of turning a blind eye.
In a scene on Gemma Collins: Self-Harm and Me, Gemma tells her mum: “I obviously needed some sort of help or support at that time.”
Joan tells her: “Which you would have got if you just spoke about it, when you done it, we didn’t want to bring attention to it.”
Gemma replied: “Your and dad’s approach was like: ‘Let’s never mention it.'”
Her mum tells her: “Life was busy” as Gemma fires back: “But what’s more important, life being busy or your daughter cutting themselves?”
In the documentary the star explains that she self-harmed because she struggled with her meteoric rise to fame.
Gemma was working as a car sales rep when she first appeared in Towie in 2011 and it wasn’t long until she became one of its biggest stars.
Speaking about the impact of that for the first time in her new Channel 4 documentary she tells fiance Rami Hawash what triggered her to hurt herself.
She said: “It was never about you, it was never about any of that. It was to do with me, obviously I was going through something and the only way I could relieve the pressure was to cut myself.
“I never wanted to kill myself – that never went through my head.”
Gemma continued: “It was like a coping mechanism for me, so you know, when I just obviously, suddenly got famous and then people were coming up to me every five minutes.
“The pressure, the build-up, I couldn’t express myself properly.”
She added: “In the back of my mind because obviously we do want to go on to, you know, have a baby and stuff.
“I feel very happy with you and very settled with you and I think always in the back of my mind, you think, ‘Oh s**t, is it going to come back?’”
If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please call the Samaritans for free on 116123, email jo@samaritans.org or visit samaritans.org for more info
