Joe Wicks to open up on childhood living with parents' mental health struggles in Louis Theroux documentary

Online fitness trainer Joe Wicks is set to open up on his tough childhood living with two parents who had mental health struggles in a new BBC documentary.

Joe Wicks: Facing My Childhood is set to air as part of Mental Health Awareness Week later this month and will see the popular fitness guru reveal what life was like for him growing up in a programme executive produced by Louis Theroux.

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He is best known for encouraging children and families across the world to exercise during lockdown with his daily PE with Joe YouTubes, but Wicks will tell viewers how his own childhood was far from idyllic.

Wicks, who runs personal training business The Body Coach, will talk about his mum’s obsessive compulsive disorder, eating disorders and anxiety, as well as his dad’s heroin addiction and depression.

Honest and emotional conversations with both of his parents and his brother will see Wicks, 36, recall long-forgotten childhood memories and discover how his turbulent home life affected his identity as an adult.

After the success of his PE with Joe broadcasts, Wicks has said that he received many messages from parents talking about their own mental health problems and their worries on how it could affect their children, which made him reflect on his own experiences.

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He has recorded a special episode of PE with Joe with Theroux, where they work out together and discuss how exercise has helped him to deal with past traumas.

Other Mental Health Awareness Week programming across the BBC will include Fergal Keane: Living with PTSD [post traumatic stress disorder], where the special correspondent looks at how he tackles a lifetime of reporting on tough stories and how they can overwhelm him.

Paul Merson - A Walk Through My Life airs on Thursday night as the former footballer walks through the countryside while reflecting on his alcohol and gambling addictions.

Adrian Chiles also opens up on his attention deficit disorder diagnosis in an episode of Winter Walks.

Joe Wicks: Facing My Childhood airs on Monday, 16 May at 9pm on BBC One.

Watch: Joe Wicks receives MBE at Windsor Castle