Radio DJ Kate Lawler broke down in tears and she shared intimate details of her battle to manage her perimenopause symptoms, and her ‘exhausting’ efforts to mask them
Radio DJ Kate Lawler was reduced to tears as she opened up about her “turbulent” battle with her perimenopause symptoms. The 45-year-old former Big Brother winner became emotional as she chatted to menopause expert Dr Naomi Potter on the Is It Hot In Here? podcast about her symptoms and how they’ve been affecting her life, job and her relationship with her husband.
The mum of one became particularly emotional while discussing how she “masks” her feelings and pretend “she’s ok”. Wiping away tears, she shared: “I get emotional talking about it. I always feel like it’s exhausting because having the job that I have, I constantly have to mask, I’m okay.
“At the moment, I just feel like I’m not. I feel like I’m a nightmare to live with – I feel sorry for my husband.”
She went on to say she felt particularly affected watching videos of herself from a couple of years ago and “seeing how happy she was”, adding, “I’ve changed so much and I just wish I could be like the person I was.”
Kate told Dr Naomi that she suspects her symptoms began after she suffered from Postnatal Depression following the 2021 birth of her daughter Noah.
“I’ve been in perimenopause for a few years and I felt ashamed and embarrassed and like I was it was going to age me, and was going to stop me from getting work,” she said, adding that she felt “quite cross with herself” for not feeling comfortable enough to share her experience earlier.
“I don’t know what’s happening to me, I feel like I’ve completely lost who I am as a person. I feel so different to who I was.”
Kate, who was crowned winner of Big Brother in 2002, also attributed much of her upset to her health anxiety, and fears surrounding hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which is often prescribed for women experiences peri or menopausal symptoms.
After explaining that her symptoms started with heart palpations and insomnia, followed by hair thinning, anxiety and mood swings, Kate said she didn’t visit a doctor until late 2022 when she suffered from tingling feelings in her legs. She underwent blood tests and was advised to consider taking HRT.
“I felt better on the patches than the gel, but the patches kept coming off,” she told Dr Naomi. “I had to change it every three days and that was annoying for me.”
Kate and her husband Martin Bojtos – known as ‘Boj’ – married in 2022, a year after the birth of daughter Noah, and the pair now host the Maybe Baby podcast together. Explaining why she felt comfortable enough to share her experience after suffering in silence, Kate said she had no idea what was heading her way, and would like to stop other people experiencing the same shock.
“I don’t think I even know knew about it in my 20s, genuinely, I think I’d maybe heard of the word, but thought it was an old person thing. I think we have to be a little bit transparent, it’s going to happen. You will go through the menopause and while some people will sail through it, there are some symptoms which will make you feel a little s****y.”