{"id":343111,"date":"2026-03-12T22:13:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T22:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/343111\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T22:13:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T22:13:13","slug":"fearne-cotton-opens-up-about-shame-after-ex-ian-watkins-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/343111\/","title":{"rendered":"Fearne Cotton opens up about &#8216;shame&#8217; after ex Ian Watkins scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Presenter Fearne Cotton has revealed she felt overwhelming \u2018shame\u2019 when the horrific crimes of paedophile Ian Watkins were reported while she was on air at BBC Radio 1.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/fearnecotton\/?hl=en\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cotton <\/a>briefly dated Watkins around 2005, at the height of his fame with Lostprophets, before any of his depraved behaviour was known. <\/p>\n<p>Watkins was later jailed for 13 child sexual offences, including conspiring to rape an 11-month-old baby. He was stabbed to death in prison last October.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Fearne-Cotton-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1753994\"  \/>Fearne Cotton. Pic: Dave Benett\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>In her new book, Likeable, 44-year-old Cotton reflects on the pressures of fame and her need to please during her 20s and 30s. <\/p>\n<p>She writes about the particularly difficult period when Watkins\u2019 crimes came to light, describing how reporting the news on her own radio show left her feeling helpless and weighed down with shame.<\/p>\n<p>While she does not name <a href=\"https:\/\/extra.ie\/2025\/10\/12\/news\/world-news\/ian-watkins-ex-girlfriend\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watkins <\/a>in the book, Cotton recalls working on air during a \u2018horrible news story that doesn\u2019t involve me yet has a tenuous and life-altering link to me,\u2019 which left her struggling to maintain her composure. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Fearne-Cotton-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1753993\"  \/>Ian Watkins and Fearne Cotton in 2004. Pic: Shutterstock<\/p>\n<p>She reportedly felt sick on air, attempting to push down the anger, sorrow, and tears while presenting.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I feel simultaneously glared at, stared at, yet utterly ignored by those in the office. Are they all talking about me behind my back? Or am I a narcissist for thinking that?\u2019 she writes, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Mirror.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Cotton says she eventually came to understand that the shame she carried \u2018belongs to others,\u2019 specifically, men who had mistreated her or left her to bear it, and that therapy helped her release it.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ian-watkins-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-542839\"  \/>Ian Watkins. Pic: South Wales Police<\/p>\n<p>Reflecting on her time at Radio 1 more broadly, she admits the scrutiny she faced on social media and in the office changed her personality.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I stopped trying to be funny, I limited how much of myself I gave away, I diluted my personality to a weak imitation of the person I used to be. And then I quit,\u2019 she writes.<\/p>\n<p>Cotton left Radio 1 in 2015 to focus on her mental health, later pursuing other media projects. <\/p>\n<p>She split from husband Jesse Wood in December 2025, with whom she shares two children, Rex, 13, and Honey, 10. Around the same time, she underwent surgery to remove two benign tumours from her jaw.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Presenter Fearne Cotton has revealed she felt overwhelming \u2018shame\u2019 when the horrific crimes of paedophile Ian Watkins were&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282],"class_list":["post-343111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}