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'This Morning' star Alison Hammond has PTSD over being called 'elephant' at school

EDITORIAL USE ONLY Alison Hammond participates in a body confidence panel for Teatime Live, in partnership with WW - the new Weight Watchers, at the Century Club in London.
Alison Hammond has opened up about having PTSD. (PA)

This Morning’s Alison Hammond has revealed she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after bullies called her an "elephant” when she was younger.

The presenter, 46, said she was taunted over her weight when she was at school and can still be triggered by references to elephants.

According to the Mirror, she shares in her book You’ve Got To Laugh that she once got “heart palpitations” when she saw one of the animals on a safari.

Read more: Alison Hammond mortified after dead dog blunder

“Anything to do with elephants sets it off,” Hammond was quoted as saying.

Alison Hammond made an emotional speech about the Black Lives Matter movement on 'This Morning'. (Getty Images)
Alison Hammond is known for being a presenter on 'This Morning'. (Getty Images)

“I remember it happening when I was on safari once. Some elephants came into view and I had heart palpitations because I was worried that someone was going to say, ‘Alison, look! An elephant, like you’.”

Hammond also told how she wrongly assumed that Brian May was talking about her when he referred to an elephant during an awards ceremony.

The TV star said she was chatting a bit loudly when a band came on and May asked her to keep it down a bit.

She said the Queen star later took to the stage for a speech and, referring to something else, talked about an elephant in the room.

After what she’d been through when she was younger, Hammond wrongly assumed he was talking about her.

“I had a full-on panic he was going to start embarrassing me in front of everybody,” she said.

However, the rocker later told her: “‘Of course I wasn’t talking about you!”

Hammond has previously been open about wanting to lose weight, and it was recently reported that in her book she says she decided to have a gastric band operation after her chair broke during an interview with Matt Damon.

The star said she is happy and comfortable with her body shape, but that the embarrassing moment in 2007 made her resort to weight loss surgery.

Read more: Alison Hammond looking to 'conquer America' with her own show

She went on to have the operation but had it reversed two years later after her body rejected it, causing her to suffer regular sickness.

Watch: This Morning shows CCTV of Alison Hammond falling in her garden