{"id":91238,"date":"2025-08-24T01:18:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T01:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/91238\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T01:18:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T01:18:10","slug":"michelle-bridges-reveals-personal-health-battle-i-didnt-have-a-clue-what-was-wrong-with-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/91238\/","title":{"rendered":"Michelle Bridges reveals personal health battle: ‘I didn’t have a clue what was wrong with me’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michelle Bridges<\/a> has opened up about a secret health battle that left her questioning her body, mind and future.<\/p>\n

The celebrity trainer and TV personality, 53, revealed she was blindsided when she first started experiencing symptoms of perimenopause in 2020 – a condition she admits she had barely even heard of at the time.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Stellar magazine’s Something To Talk About podcast<\/a>, the Biggest Loser star recalled how the ordeal began with confusing and worrying symptoms.<\/p>\n

‘I didn’t have a clue what was wrong with me,’ she admitted.<\/p>\n

‘I know my body and my mindset very well and couldn’t quite put my finger on what was up. I said to my doctor, “I swear I’m not a hypochondriac, but I’ve been in your office probably four times in a month\u2026 what’s going on?”‘<\/p>\n

Michelle described suffering from heart palpitations, hip pain, ringing in her ears, night sweats, sleeplessness and anxiety – feelings she had never experienced before.<\/p>\n

\"Michelle <\/p>\n

Michelle Bridges has opened up about a secret health battle that left her questioning her body, mind and future<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The celebrity trainer and TV personality revealed she was blindsided when she first began experiencing the symptoms of perimenopause in 2020<\/p>\n

Despite being prescribed antidepressants, she knew deep down that depression wasn’t the cause.<\/p>\n

‘I sat in the car for a good 10 minutes thinking, “Is this really where I’m at? I’m a bit flat, but am I depressed?” I’ve got no judgment against antidepressants – they work wonders for many women and men – but I found it quite confronting.’<\/p>\n

At the time, Michelle was also dealing with the pressures of the pandemic, the breakdown of her relationship with Steve ‘Commando’ Willis, and raising their young son Axel on her own.<\/p>\n

Looking back, she now recognises those symptoms as tell-tale signs of perimenopause – the stage leading up to menopause – and says the discovery not only helped her understand her struggles but gave her a new mission.<\/p>\n

‘I remember saying to my best friend one day, “I feel this weird sense of impending doom, like something bad is gonna happen”,’ she shared.<\/p>\n

‘There was some different thinking I was experiencing for the first time in my life, but something was blocking me from taking that script.’<\/p>\n

The health scare inspired Michelle to research and ultimately write her new book, The Perimenopause Method – her 18th release – which aims to break the stigma and empower women going through the same experience.<\/p>\n

Michelle now hopes her story will help other women recognise the signs and feel less alone.<\/p>\n

\"'I <\/p>\n

‘I didn’t have a clue what was wrong with me,’ she admitted. Michelle is pictured with son Axel, nine<\/p>\n

\"Read <\/p>\n

Read Michelle’s full interview in this week’s Stellar magazine<\/p>\n

Michelle and her ex Steve debuted their romance on the red carpet in May 2013, shortly after announcing splits from their respective partners at the time.<\/p>\n

They welcomed their son Axel in December 2015 and later announced their split in 2020, the same year Michelle was convicted for drunk driving.<\/p>\n

Michelle blew 0.086 when she was pulled over in her Range Rover with Axel in the car at about 11.25am on Australia Day 2020.<\/p>\n

In 2021, the former Biggest Loser star told Good Weekend<\/a> magazine she suffered her fair share of ‘dark’ days following her split from Steve.<\/p>\n

‘I felt very alone,’ she said.<\/p>\n

‘To be honest, it was the hardest time of my life, ever, leading up to what happened. I felt like I was in a fog, and I didn’t know what was happening.’<\/p>\n

Steve, meanwhile, has since moved on with current girlfriend\u00a0Harika Vancuylenberg.<\/p>\n

Aside from sharing Axel with Michelle, Steve also has three children: Briana, 25, Ella, 16, Jack, 13, from a previous relationship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michelle Bridges has opened up about a secret health battle that left her questioning her body, mind and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,100,134,43846,2017],"class_list":["post-91238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dailymail","tag-entertainment","tag-michelle-bridges","tag-tvshowbiz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}