BBC Radio 1 DJ Clara AMFO has talked about how depression played a role in its decision to leave the station last year.
AMFO has previously talked about the period of conflict with his mental health and anxiety, and Fearon told Cotton’s Happy Place Podcast Last week he “dealt with deep, deep, deep depression in my life”.
She told her former Radio 1 colleague that she decided to partially leave the station as she felt “fully satisfied” from the job and did not want her to become a “core”.
But she says that she was suffering from depression in 2023 and took a break “to reset a little” before deciding to leave for good.
AMFO joined Radio 1 in 2015 and took over the mid-morning slot of cotton in the same year before Annie Mac went to the evening show. AMFO exited the station in March 2024.
He also participated in strictly low dancing in 2020, co-scored the British Awards last year, and is a regular presenter in BBC One Show.
He said that his depression was particularly spoiled in early 2023.
“Met, I was in flipping trenches,” she said. “I think I was burnt out, I was not taking care of myself properly, I think I was overwhelmed by the strange life – not strange, valid – injustice.
“I wasn’t feeling very good right now and I was in a negative headspace, and yes I was really depressed in the mid -2023, and I took some time from the radio, and just had to reset a little. And when I decided that I decided that I am going to leave my show, in fact, at that time.”
Cotton, who had earlier said that he had left Radio 1 because the job was “ruining his mind”, AMFO reported that he had experienced “very little mental health”.
The AMFO also said in an interview about other factors behind his departure from Radio 1, saying that he “did not have any resentment that I used to do” in my job.
“I never want to feel anything that it’s being forced or as it is a task. And I was not feeling like this, but I always want to listen to music as a fan rather than a business,” she explained.
“I want to be able to talk to people at the human level, instead of thinking, I got that viral interview clip.”
She made a comment that Annie Mac told her when she left. “He was just like, ‘Yes Babe, I’m ready to do my next thing’.
“And I think how I felt. I felt that I feel it completely satisfied and I was so, okay, I think I think nothing is new to do anything for me. I can move and do it forward. I can do it. But I think one thing I have learned, what I have learned, that is that is just because you can do something because you don’t mean that you should always do.”
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