Comic says he suffered eating disorder early in his TV career

Jack Whitehall has revealed that he suffered from bulimia when he  first started appearing on TV.

He disclosed his struggle with the eating distorted on the new Disney+ documentary about Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff.

The comedian was praising the cricketer for being so open about his own bulimia.

He said: ‘I was bulimic when I first started doing television, it's not something that I've ever really spoken about,' he confessed.

'But I remember that pressure of being on television.

'And it's not something that I've seen other men or people in the media talk about, until Fred came out and spoke about it. I just remember thinking that was incredibly brave of him.'

Whitehall, 36, struck up an friendship with the Ashes hero, 47, after they starred together on Sky’s comedy sports quiz A League Of Their Own.

The stand-up said they are unlikely mates, saying that before they met he thought: ‘[Flintoff] is this big burly northern bloke and I'm this rather effeminate flouncing boarding school boy, I'm probably not going to be his type of chap.’

In the film, Flintoff speaks candidly about his traumatic life-changing crash while filming a Top Gear segment and confesses: ’After the accident, I didn't think I had it in me to get through. This sounds awful: part of me wishes I had been killed, part of me thinks "I wish I had died."

'I didn't want to kill myself, don't mistake the two things, but I was thinking 'this would have been so much easier.’''

Published: 24 Apr 2025