Frankie Bridge: 'Depression can happen to you if you’re 'successful’ and ‘beautiful’ - and it’s ignorant to think otherwise'

Frankie Bridge sighs. “I do miss being a pop star.”  The 28-year-old has spent most of her life in the limelight. At age 12, she was in tween band S Club Juniors, then joined successful girl group The Saturdays aged 18.

But for the past three years - bar a stint on Strictly Come Dancing where she made the semifinals in 2014 - Frankie has given up the glitz and glamour to focus on motherhood.

She has two sons, Parker, three, and Carter, two, with her 37-year-old husband, the retired England footballer Wayne Bridge. The boys play at her feet while we speak, while her husband pops in to ask if she wants to go to Costco with him (“Of course I do!”). It is not exactly the life you might expect of a former pop star and footballer’s wife, but for her 870,000 Instagram followers, it won’t come as much of a surprise.

“I’m really honest,” says Frankie. “I often think, what shall I put on Instagram today, because all I’ve done is change pooey nappies. I find it weird people are interested in that. But I’m a mum of two and a wife, and I think people like to see that.”

Like all figures in the public eye, she is no stranger to trolling. It is a phenomenon she explores in her new documentary, Celeb Trolls: We’re Coming To Get You on Channel 5. In it, Frankie meets celebrities who have been victims of online hate, such as Rebecca Adlington and Rebekah Vardy - as well as the people who trolled them.

“It’s not about naming and shaming trolls; it’s about showing them how much they’re affecting people’s lives - and that they can be tracked down,” she explains. “But also for the victims, it shows trolls aren’t these anonymous scary people; when you talk to them they have absolutely nothing to say.”

Her own experiences of trolling were largely during her pregnancies, when people would tell her how “fat” and “ugly” she looked. “It’s shallow, but if a part of you feels that way already - and I had put on a lot of weight - someone saying that confirms what you think.”

But the worst comments for her are always the ones that question her ability to parent, such as the online outrage she sparked when she was on Strictly and missed Parker walking for the first time.

“I knew I’d have so many people passing judgment, and as a parent, that’s the hardest bit,” she sighs. “If they mention my children or parenting skills it makes me so angry. Every parent knows the guilt - whether you’re at home, working, not working. 

“You always think everyone’s’ kids are better behaved than yours, or they’re handling their lives better than you, and it’s not the case. I still see someone on Instagram and think, ‘Oh wow, she looks good and her house is spotless. Maybe I’m a bad mum’. But I also know everyone just shows the good stuff; we’re all guilty of it.”

Though she and Wayne share their parenting roles “100 per cent equally”, Frankie receives more negative abuse than her husband, and she believes the same is true of most women - “It would be wrong to say men don’t experience it, but every woman gets 'slag', 'slut', and worse.”

Before Wayne joined social media, Frankie even received abuse on his behalf. “I’d get the football hate, and that annoyed me more than it did when people trolled me personally. I thought, you don’t know him, how dare you. But Wayne doesn’t let stuff like that bother him.”

She can identify with other famous women who have been criticised for not conforming to a certain role, such as Louise Redknapp, another Strictly contestant, who was recently condemned for partying after separating from her ex-footballer husband Jamie.

“It’s the same with all relationships in the public eye - we all have an opinion but none of us know what happens at home," she says. "It’s unfair for us to talk about people’s relationships all the time; it’s a family at the end of the day.”

She points out that much of it is linked to being a ‘WAG’ - a term she dislikes. “Part of me thinks, I am a wife of a footballer, so fair enough. But everyone means it in a derogatory way - people think you’re money grabbing. That really annoys me because it’s obvious I work. I’ve been working since I was 12. I’ve had my own career, and I had it before Wayne.”

She hasn’t ruled out a comeback with The Saturdays - “if it worked out, I’d love to” - and is considering acting lessons to get a part in a musical and “tick off” her childhood dream (“I always wanted to be Annie.”) “My children are so lucky they have both parents around most of the time, when most people can’t do that,” she acknowledges. “But I want my kids to see they have to work what they want.”

Would she want them to follow in their parents’ footsteps?

“I want them to be all-rounders and do what they want,” she says. “Carter loves music and is always dancing, so I thought I’d take him to ballet. He loved it. There was a whole room of little girls, and him. They got given wands, and he got a flag, but said no - I want a wand. He might be my little dancer.”

Frankie has always used her high profile platform to raise awareness about issues that are important to her, from the rise of online abuse to mental health. Five years ago, when it was still rare for celebrities to speak about personal experiences with depression, Frankie opened up about hers after a six month hiatus from The Saturdays, telling Glamour magazine about her panic attacks and the "spiral of negative thinking" that made her feel "that I was worthless, that I was ugly , that I didn’t deserve anything."

“By talking about it, I’m not hiding anything now,” she smiles. “Which is why the big message is we all need to talk about it. People assume it’s a rich person’s illness, or that it can’t happen to you if you’re ‘successful’ and ‘beautiful’ - even I’ve thought that. But it’s ignorant people still think like that in this day and age, and it’s sad.”

Even Wayne, who she had recently begun dating when she spoke up about her mental health, had initially struggled. “He didn’t understand it at first, but he made it his mission to understand it,” says Frankie. “He gets it now.”

She was nervous that she would have postnatal depression after giving birth, or that the pressures of motherhood would aggravate her anxiety, but to her surprise, she has found that having children has made her more laid-back than ever.

“I don’t worry so much about myself; I have my kids and husband to think about. I’m a lot more relaxed with them than everyone thought I’d be. I have control of it now, rather than it having control of me.”

Celeb Trolls: We’re coming to get you starts on August 24, at 10pm on Channel 5. 

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