My eating disorder was so bad I was given 24 hours to live – now I’m on Corrie, says Gemma Oaten
EVEN as doctors at the psychiatric hospital where she was being treated for an eating disorder gave her 24 hours to live, the young Gemma Oaten dreamed of one day starring in Corrie.
Now 37, the actress who has starred in Hollyoaks, Emmerdale and Holby City finally got her wish as viewers saw her on the famous TV cobbles this week.
In an exclusive interview, Gemma reveals she would not have made it without the support of her mentor and friend, Hollywood A-lister Sir Patrick Stewart.
After recovering from her troubles which started at age ten and dogged her in her teens, Gemma wrote to the TV, stage and screen giant for advice.
And for more than a decade, Star Trek’s Jean-Luc Picard has urged Gemma to be honest and open about her past, giving her the strength to succeed in acting, overcome her disorder and help other sufferers.
Gemma, now 37, says: “He was instrumental in the decision to start speaking out. He said it was important to use our voices for good.
“I wrote to him when I was a student, asking for any advice. He wrote back and we stayed in touch.
“He invited me to see him on stage and I often send him links to my TV appearances. He writes back and says he’s proud to know me and that I’m an inspiration.
“He’s such a good guy, with a great heart. His encouragement has been amazing.”
In Coronation Street Sir Patrick, 81, was able to see Gemma, as flirty mum Isla Haywood, ask mechanic Tyrone Dobbs out on a date.
Gemma has bravely spoken out about her darkest days in hospital.
She describes how staff used the ITV soap as a reward, only allowing her to watch it if she had made sufficient effort to eat.
She said: “I nearly didn’t make it because of the eating disorder. I almost died four times. I spent a lot of my life in hospitals, eating disorder units and psychiatric units. My favourite TV shows got me through.
“Some of these places were backwards in their approach. The psychiatric unit I was in when I was 11 was brutal.
Her eating disorder caused Gemma to suffer a heart attack when she was just 18 years old
“It was very much reward and punishment, so if I’d put on weight I’d be allowed to watch television. I’d watch Coronation Street and escape into it and have that little bit of fire inside me thinking, ‘I can beat this eating disorder — I can get better and go for my dreams’.
“Eating disorders make you lose sight of a lot of things, but I still dared to dream that I’d be on Corrie one day.”
Gemma — best known for playing Rachel Breckle in Corrie’s rival soap Emmerdale from 2011-2015 — developed anorexia aged ten following an episode of being bullied at school.
Just a year later she was so ill she ended up in hospital and was sent to a youngsters’ psychiatric unit. She says: “There were moments when I was on my deathbed and I didn’t even know what day it was.
“I felt helpless and the easier option was not to be alive any more, rather than live the hell I was enduring.”
When she gained weight she was allowed home to Hull.
But there were regular relapses and her teenage years were blighted by bulimia, binge-eating, laxative abuse, over-exercising and an addiction to sleeping tablets.
Gemma is now manager and patron of eating disorders support group Seed, which you can find at the website .
She says: “I hadn’t addressed the reasons behind the eating disorder so as soon as I felt troubled, it came back.
“When I was 15 I got a sickness bug and realised I was able to make myself sick. It was a way I could fool everybody.
“In one unit I was so weak I wasn’t allowed to wash my own hair or go for a walk.
“The only time I could exercise was when I went to the toilet. So I’d do 50 sit-ups on the floor while a member of staff stood outside waiting for me.”
A dramatic low came when her eating disorder caused Gemma to suffer a heart attack when she was just 18 years old. After that she began to see a therapist, gradually recovered, and by the time she was 23 she felt well enough to go to drama school.
On graduating, and determined to find a job, she fired off 500 letters, eventually getting a role in BBC1 daytime drama Doctors.
Then, in 2011, she landed the part that would make her name on Emmerdale.
Now Corrie viewers have seen her as Isla, who met newly single Tyrone when her daughter Darcy went to the same party as his daughter Hope.
I felt helpless and the easier option was not to be alive any more rather than live the hell I was enduring.
Gemma Oaten
Isla suggests a date, but the night will end in disaster next week when a man approaches them in the restaurant, announces he is Isla’s husband and punches Tyrone, sending him flying.
Gemma, who has also appeared in Holby City, says: “Isla is very flirty and confident and she dresses up.
“She’s at a kids’ party but she’s in a fake-fur gilet and leopard-print top. She embraces who she is as a woman and she goes after Tyrone.
“It wasn’t easy being on the show I’ve watched since I was a child.
“I really did have to act that I was confident on the set — I was bricking it!
“I saw Sue Nicholls, who plays Audrey, and then Bill Roache, who plays Ken, and I was like, ‘Oh my god, this is insane!’ They were both so lovely. I got a selfie with Alan Halsall, who plays Tyrone, but I didn’t dare ask for one with Bill.
“It was all I could do to pluck up the courage to speak to him.”
Gemma, who will continue to appear in Corrie throughout this month, auditioned for the part of Eva Price that ultimately went to Catherine Tyldesley — announced into the show in May 2011.
She calls Corrie her “dream job” but will continue to work with Seed raising funds and awareness — while speaking frankly about the ongoing effects of her own struggle.
She says: “I had a bowel prolapse when I was 19. It pushed against my bladder and to this day I’m on a drug that helps me with my bladder. I’m on another medication because I destroyed my oesophagus through vomiting, and I’m not sure if I can have children.”
Gemma, who now lives in London with her four year-old Schnauzer-poodle cross for company.
She says of motherhood: “I’d love to adopt but being a ‘dog mum’ is fulfilling also. She needs to be fed, loved, taken out and looked after.
“You should be able to define what your own view of family is. After everything
I’ve been through, I’ve a lot to be grateful for.
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“I’ve come full circle. I’ve survived and now I’m helping others.”
FOR support, contact Seed on 01482 718130 or on Instagram @seedsupportuk.
Signs and symptoms of anorexia
- if you're under 18, your weight and height being lower than expected for your age
- if you're an adult, having an unusually low body mass index
- missing meals, eating very little or avoiding eating any foods you see as fattening
- believing you are fat when you are a healthy weight or underweight
- taking medication to reduce your hunger (appetite suppressants)
- your periods stopping (in women who have not reached menopause) or not starting (in younger women and girls)
- physical problems, such as feeling dizzy, dry skin and hair loss
