CHILDREN’S TV presenters are known for being clean, leaving parents across the country gasping after Sarah-Jane Honeywell’s near-nude photos hit the headlines.
The 50-year-old former Cbeebies star, who lives in Lincoln, posed topless, lying on a giant plate of food in London’s Trafalgar Square, for the now infamous Peta advert in 2011.
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Sarah-Jane Honeywell became famous when she posed topless in Trafalgar Square for the Peta campaignCredit: Sarah Jane Honeywell.
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The mum-of-two revealed how the backlash affected her mental healthCredit: Awesome
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Sarah-Jane revealed that a Facebook group, called ‘I Hate Sarah-Jane Honeywell’, had been set up to troll her Credit: Awesome
A seemingly innocent charity shot ruined her life – leaving her suicidal, £100,000 in debt and estranged from her ex-boyfriend, Mr Tumble aka Justin Fletcher.
Breakpoint
Choking back tears as she recalls her darkest moment, Sarah-Jane tells Fabulous: “I felt like I’d let my husband down. I would let my parents down. I would let everyone down.
“I went to Liverpool train station and I didn’t think I was going to kill myself or hurt myself, but it was like a compulsion.
“It was like, ‘I have to jump.’ And then I remember that my little boy kicked and that shocked me.”
Sarah-Jane stars in Shamed, a fantastic new YouTube series that explores the effects of online defamation and trolling on six famous women.
Sarah-Jane, who has two children, Indiana, six, and eight-year-old Phoenix, with ex-husband Hollyoaks actor Ayden Callaghan, 42, said: “I felt like my life was over.
“The cancellation culture is really dangerous and I think people forget that there are human beings behind these celebrity characters. People can make mistakes.”
A promising start
Sarah-Jane landed her first presenting job on Cbeebies aged 29 in 2001, earning around £300 an episode.
I was a cbeebies favorite but got sacked for posing naked – it left me £100k in debt and homeless, I’m still bitter
“I started with Tikkabilla and then I did the spin-off series Higgledy House, where I started working with Justin aka Mr Tumble,” she says.
“I jumped on his back during the audition and we just totally hit it off.”
Sarah-Jane was successful at the broadcaster but admits she was shocked by the strict rules the presenters had to follow.
She once pissed off the producers after getting huge fairy wings tattooed on her back.
“My producer was horrified. I thought it was really progressive and that people shouldn’t be judged for tattoos,” she says.
“But it really wasn’t looked at. I was shocked. We had to be clean, clean.”
Sarah-Jane says she kept her serious health problems a secret from her colleagues for fear of getting the boot.
I was probably one of the few people on Cbeebies who didn’t even drink
Sarah-Jane Honeywell
“I was on Prozac for most of my life after developing an eating disorder at age 12,” she explains.
“When I went to the BBC medical they asked me if I had ever taken illegal drugs or anti-depressants and I knew it would be best to lie about it.
“From the age of 24 to 26, I consumed cocaine and pills, but from 2000 onwards I was completely sober.
“I was probably one of the few people on Cbeebies who didn’t even drink.”
A life-changing decision
Then, in October 2011, animal rights charity Peta approached Sarah-Jane – who was then vegan – and asked if she would star in one of their campaigns.
“They said I could wear a bra and pants, so I took the flesh-colored ones and was asked to lie down on a huge plate of food,” she says.
“When I got to the venue, they asked me to take off my bra because it would get a lot more news.
“I thought, ‘OK, I’m helping a good cause’ and I didn’t really see what was wrong with it. Those are just tits and they were covered by my hands.”
Sarah-Jane admits she “got quite a shock” when the photo hit newsstands.
“There was just that change,” she says. “I remember my legs almost went out from under me. I called Justin and left a message for him to call me.
“I felt that something bad was going to happen. I never heard from him or any of my former colleagues again.
“Then I found out in the newspaper that they went to the BBC for a comment, that I know he worked there for a long time. That was a shock.”
A barrage of abuse
As well as being fired, Sarah-Jane recalls receiving a barrage of online hate at the time, which affected her mental health.
“There was a Facebook group called ‘I hate Sarah-Jane Honeywell’. That was a lot,” she says.
“Other comments included ‘attention seeking’, ‘desperate’, ‘wasteful’, ‘crazy’, ‘I think she’s pure dirty’, ‘love herself’, ‘if she had any brains she’d be dangerous’… it was embarrassing because I felt like they were unfair.
“I didn’t mind people thinking I was naive, but what really annoyed me was the suggestion that if you stick out your boobs you automatically become some kind of sexual pest.
“You weren’t allowed to own your own body as a woman.”
Sarah-Jane says a lot of the comments have come from Cbeebies mums, she says: “When the mums were commenting on Facebook, I thought I was actually a nanny.
“Why do you care so much? Why are you so mean to me?”
I couldn’t get a job at all and was just surrounded by debt
Sarah-Jane Honeywell
Sarah-Jane says work has “completely dried up” and she has struggled to pay off debts, some of which she built up during her years of drug use.
“I couldn’t get a job at all and I was just surrounded by debt,” she says.
“It was all exhausting. I felt like I was drowning in it. I lost my job and it felt like I lost my identity.
“I lost everything, including myself. I didn’t really know if I could see the future.”
Breaking through
Sarah-Jane says her husband Ayden has been her rock during this difficult time, but in March 2015 she hit rock bottom.
“I just got to a really horrible stage in my life,” she says. “I had a spontaneous abortion. I was £100,000 in debt. I didn’t have a job. Then I got pregnant at 41.
“In Hollyoaks, Ayden’s character and his partner were going through a stillbirth. They filmed it around the same time I was due to give birth.
“I absolutely fell to pieces. I was so mad about it and he asked to be written off the soap.”
Sarah-Jane was so anxious that she was once overcome with dark thoughts while standing on a train platform.
“My little boy was kicking himself and it shocked me,” she says. “I had a very stressful pregnancy, but after giving birth everything changed.
“I called him Phoenix because he was rising from the ashes of what was a really tough time.”
Sarah-Jane is now back on her feet with a steady job at BBC Radio Lincoln hosting the Sunday afternoon show, as well as running her own drama school, Curious Theatre.
She says she “threw everything away” to give her boys “the best life”, adding: “I always wanted people to love and approve of me and my boys just made me go, ‘really, the only thing that matters in life now it is with your children.”
Let’s move on
And, nearly 13 years after her career crashed, she says she has nothing but pride in her infamous animal rights shoot.
“Well, I really like the picture. I think I look good,” she says.
“My kids and their friends at school have seen it and they don’t care. I’m proud of how it looks.
“Would I still do it if I could see into the future and know what was going to happen? Yes, because I’m so happy now and it changed everything for me.”
Of the trolls, she says, “I would tell the trolls to just think about what you’re saying. And why are you saying that?
“That person is a human being and they have a lot of other difficult things in their lives, so just take a step back and realize that we’re all the same.”
The BBC declined to comment when approached by Fabulous.
YOU ARE NOT ALONE
EVERY 90 minutes in the UK a life is lost to suicide.
It does not discriminate, it touches the lives of people in every corner of society – from the homeless and unemployed to builders and doctors, reality stars and football players.
It is the biggest killer of people under the age of 35, deadlier than cancer and traffic accidents.
And men are three times more likely to take their own lives than women.
Yet it’s rarely talked about, a taboo that threatens to continue its deadly rampage if we don’t all stop and pay attention now.
That’s why The Sun launched the You Are Not Alone campaign.
The aim is that by sharing practical advice, raising awareness and breaking down the barriers people face when talking about their mental health, we can all help save lives.
Let’s all pledge to ask for help when we need it, and listen to others… You are not alone.
If you or anyone you know needs help with mental health issues, the following organizations offer support:
- CALM, www.thecalmzone.net, 0800 585 858
- Heads Together, www.headstogether.org.uk
- Mind, www.mind.org.uk, 0300 123 3393
- Papyrus, www.papyrus-uk.org, 0800 068 41 41
- Samaritans, www.samaritans.org, 116 123
- Movember, www.uk.movember.com
- Anxiety UK www.anxietyuk.org.uk, 03444 775 774 Monday-Friday 9.30am-10pm, Saturday/Sunday 10am-8pm
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Sarah-Jane claims she was fired from her job at Cbeebies without warning Credit: BBC
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The Cbeebies star says she has no regrets filming with PetaCredit: Instagram/sjhoneywell
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Sarah-Jane and Ayden share two boys together Credit: Sarah Jane Honeywell.
Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: HIS Education