Clara Amfo says melancholy performed an element in Radio 1 exit
Former BBC Radio 1 DJ Clara Amfo has spoken about how melancholy performed an element in her resolution to depart the station final yr.
Amfo has beforehand spoken about her durations of struggling together with her psychological well being and nervousness, and informed Fearne Cotton’s Blissful Place podcast final week she has “handled deep, deep, deep melancholy in my life”.
She informed her former Radio 1 colleague she determined to depart the station partly as a result of she felt “fully satiated” by the job and did not need it to develop into “a chore”.
However she went on to say she was affected by melancholy in 2023 and took a break “to have a bit reset”, earlier than deciding to depart for good.
Amfo joined Radio 1 in 2015 and took over Cotton’s mid-morning slot the identical yr, earlier than transferring to Annie Mac’s night present in 2021. Amfo left the station in March 2024.
She additionally took half in Strictly Come Dancing in 2020, co-hosted the Brit Awards final yr, and is an everyday presenter on BBC One’s The One Present.
She informed Cotton her melancholy had develop into notably dangerous in the beginning of 2023.
“Mate, I used to be within the flipping trenches,” she stated. “I feel I used to be burnt out, I wasn’t taking good care of myself correctly, I feel I used to be a bit kind of overwhelmed by life’s bizarre – not bizarre, legitimate – injustices.
“I simply wasn’t feeling nice and I used to be in a little bit of a destructive headspace, and yeah I used to be actually, actually depressed mid-2023, and I took a while off of radio, and simply needed to have a bit reset. And that is once I determined I used to be going to depart my present, really, on the time.”
Cotton, who has beforehand stated she left Radio 1 as a result of the job was “ruining her thoughts”, informed Amfo she had additionally skilled “very, very low psychological well being in durations”.
Amfo additionally spoke about different elements behind her departure from Radio 1 earlier within the interview, saying she was decided not “to resent something that I do” in her job.
“I do not ever need something to really feel prefer it’s being pressured or prefer it’s a chore. And I wasn’t feeling that method, however I need to have the ability to hearken to music as a fan at all times, fairly than as a enterprise,” she defined.
“I need to have the ability to speak to individuals on a human degree, fairly than considering, I’ve acquired to get that viral interview clip.”
She quoted a remark that Annie Mac informed her when she left. “She was similar to, ‘Yeah babe, I am simply able to do my subsequent factor’.
“And I feel that is how I felt. I felt so fully satiated by it and I used to be like, nicely, I feel there’s nothing new for me to do. I may keep it up and do it. I may. However I feel one factor I discovered is simply because you are able to do one thing doesn’t suggest you at all times ought to.”
BBC Information used AI to assist write the abstract on the high of this text. It was edited by BBC journalists. Discover out extra.
