Gail Porter Takes Desperate Step To Beat Depression

Gail Porter is quitting the UK in a desperate attempt to beat her depression once and for all.

The TV presenter will spend three months in an intense rehab program in South Africa after struggling to cope with mental health issues over the last few years.

She will spend her time in Cape Town, where she will be cut off from friends and family and banned from using a phone.

The move comes over a year after she suffered a horrific meltdown in which she was sectioned under the Mental Health Act over fears she was suicidal.

But despite admitting she is scared by the prospect of the rehab stint, Gail is adamant it will help transform her life.

She tells The Sun: "I'm terrified. I'm scared to death. But I also think this is the happiest I've ever been. I think this is the best thing I could do to get me out of the state I'm in.

"I've always had an addictive nature. It isn't just drinking. I'm addicted to everything, even to cleaning.

"Recently, I've put on a brave face in the media but the truth is that I'm really upset and I need help. So I'm off to try to sort my head out. Not my hair, but my head.

"I try to cope with everything through humour. But not a day goes by without someone in the street laughing at me or pointing at me.

"The other day, a little kid in the bus pointed and yelled, 'You've got no hair!' So I went, 'I left it on the bus. It's on the C11 and I can't find it.'

"I'm going to come out of the rehab with an Afro, I'll be 22 years old again and seven stone... only joking."

Gail, who started to lose her hair to alopecia in 2005 after splitting from Toploader guitarist Dan Hipgrave, also opened up about the hell she went through when she was sectioned last May.

She told the Sunday Mirror: "It was my lowest moment yet and I have had some low moments. In some ways it feels like it hasn't really happened, as if it happened to someone else.

"I don't really remember the first day in the hospital but the rest was horrific... This has been the worst year I have ever had but if I have learned anything it is that you can make light out of any situation... I am old and knackered, bald and mental... but at least I can laugh about it... I am feeling good, I am keeping busy... and looking to the future."

> CELEB PICS OF THE DAY