Ian

FEARNE Cotton has revealed she felt “shamed, stared at and ignored” by colleagues after the arrest of her former boyfriend Ian Watkins.

While she does not mention him by name, the former Radio 1 star discusses a “life-altering” news story connected to her in her new book.

In Likeable, released this week, the former BBC Radio 1 host hints at the difficult period she endured after the Lostprophets frontman admitted to 13 child sex offences.

The now 44-year-old recalls being live on air when “a horrible news story that doesn’t involve me yet has a tenuous and life-altering link to me will be broadcast on my own radio show again that day”.

Fearne briefly dated Lostprophets frontman Watkins in the mid-2000s after the pair met at the Kerrang! Awards.

The relationship is believed to have lasted around a year, and the presenter largely kept it out of the spotlight at the time.

HARD TIMES

Fearne Cotton’s ex Jesse Wood reveals he’s jobless & living on £1,000 a month

hard time

Fearne Cotton reveals she’s not sleeping days after death of paedo ex Ian Watkins

His offending only came to light years after the pair had split.

Watkins was arrested in 2012 over child sex offences and convicted the following year, during which time Fearne was hosting BBC Radio 1’s weekday mid-morning show.

The radio star wrote: “I feel simultaneously glared at, stared at, yet utterly ignored by those in the office.

“Are they all talking about me behind my back? Or am I a narcissist for thinking that?”

Ian Watkins later pleaded guilty to offences including the attempted rape of a child and was jailed for 29 years in 2013.

In quotes obtained by The Mirror, Fearne writes that she struggled with intense shame and nausea as she tried to keep broadcasting.

Trying to push through, she explained that she “shoved down the anger, the rage, the sorrow and tears” in order to keep going, describing the period as one of “depression and a heaviness”.

However, she said she has since worked through those feelings in therapy and realised the shame was never hers to carry.

Instead, she wrote that it “belongs to others” and mostly the men from her past.

The mother-of-two added: “Men who have shamed me, treated me badly and left me lumbered with it.”

Watkins died from blood loss at HMP Wakefield in October after being stabbed in the neck.

West Yorkshire Police later charged two men, aged 25 and 43, with murder. Their trial is set to begin in May.

Shortly after the news of his death, Fearne shared a reflective post on Instagram in which she spoke about struggling with shame and sleep.

“Here are four things that I learned this week,” she said in the video.

“The first one was from the Happy Place podcast where I spoke to Charlie Mackesy who talked a lot about shame which I greatly appreciated.

“And the one reminder that I had from that episode was that so many of us feel shame but we assume it’s just us because that is what shame does.

“It wants you to believe that it’s just you but it’s not…”

She added in the caption: “Four life lessons from this week. I’m not sleeping well.

My brain is a bit wobbly at the moment but I’m grasping the lessons life is chucking my way.”

Insiders previously told the Mail the presenter is “haunted” and “very, very humiliated” each time his name is mentioned.

Estoril had just lost 3-1 to Sporting at Alvalade, but Ian Cathro was in an incredibly positive mood in his post-match news conference.

“Can I put a question to you?” he asked a journalist in native-level Portuguese the last time the team from the Lisbon coast faced Sporting away, in March 2025.

“What type of football do you like to watch? Did you enjoy the game? Probably you were all around here in other matches and I assume you fell asleep [at some point]. We want to do things differently.”

That night, despite the result, at times Estoril, who play in a 5,000-capacity stadium, managed to silence more than 35,000 home fans.

Cathro couldn’t have been prouder to witness it.

On Friday, the 39-year-old Scottish coach will be heading back to Alvalade hoping to achieve the same, albeit with a better outcome on the pitch.

His Estoril side are one of the most exciting teams to watch in Portugal, averaging two goals per game with 46 in 23 matches, the fourth most, and more than league leaders FC Porto (44).

Along with Sporting, they’ve had the most games scoring four or more this campaign (six). For the second consecutive season, a team used to fighting relegation finds itself comfortably in the top half of the table, albeit with the most porous defence, having conceded 39 goals.

The club’s record top-flight points tally of 54, achieved in the 2013-14 season, when they recorded their best finish of fourth, is perhaps out of reach this term given they are on 33 with 11 games remaining, but even Benfica boss Jose Mourinho admitted being impressed by Cathro, saying “he’s leaving his mark”.

The Scotsman’s secret? As he always emphasises, they play with no fear, regardless of the opponent.

“I’m young, but I’ve already been through a lot, in a lot of places. I think I’ve already seen almost every film you can see in a career in this industry,” Cathro tells BBC Sport.

“I’m not here trying to win five games in a row just to make the jump. I look at this project and I genuinely feel my responsibility is to help the club take a step to another level. And that other level is more stability, so that no one – absolutely no-one – is afraid anymore.”

The recognition for that is certainly coming.

In January, Cathro was voted the Portuguese top flight’s coach of the month by his peers.