“MY MIND WAS CRAZY, I COULDN'T BREATHE”: SADIE FROST ON HOW SHE’S OVERCOME CRIPPLING ANXIETY

Sadie Frost has discussed her crippling anxiety and how she learned to cope with it, while speaking on the new Good Housekeeping podcast saying, “my mind was crazy, I couldn't breathe." Speaking on the second episode of My Life in a Biscuit Tin, Sadie explained how a lung disease called Bronchiectasis affected her breathing and led to a lot of anxiety from a young age, and that she'd also experienced panic attacks.

As a teenager, she said, her mum convinced Sadie to try yoga and breathing classes to help her manage the condition. It became a practice she has engaged with increasingly throughout her life.

"The more I went through my 20s, 30s, 40s – and when I had my kids and doing pregnancy yoga - I realised that to stop any anxiety or panic attacks, I had to engage with [it]," she said. "With a strict yoga practice, I've been able to conquer all the problems that came up from me having this lung condition, which I’ll have forever.”

Now, Sadie has become a yoga teacher, leading classes and workshops for others. Alongside her yoga career, Sadie has transitioned from in front of the camera to behind it, as a producer and director.

Her latest film, Twiggy, is a documentary about the 1960s fashion icon, which she collaborated closely on with the star. She explained how the pair met on a podcast after Sadie's previous film Quant, about fashion designer Mary Quant.

When Twiggy asked Sadie what her next project was, Sadie said, "'Maybe I should do you.’ [Twiggy] said, ‘Oh no, I don't know if I want a doc’. She kind of took it a bit seriously. So I said, ‘Well, just think about it.’ The next day she called me up, and said, ‘I've actually thought that maybe you would be good to direct it. Let's go for lunch’.”

In the episode, Sadie also opened up about her "very horrible, public divorce" saying she "had very low self-esteem" at the time and that it "really knocked" her.

"I wasn’t well really. And it took years to find my feet doing it all on my own, raising four kids on my own and just juggling money," she said, but explained that she was now "feeling really happy and content at the moment. I feel confident. It took me a long time not to care about what people thought."

Her children have since grown up and left home, which Sadie admitted was "a bit hard at first when they actually weren't living in the house." But now, Sadie is embracing life with an empty nest while being single.

“It made me embrace being on my own," she said. "I've excelled so much more since I haven't been with somebody because I think there's a constant thing of having to keep someone else happy. And, at the end of the day, I want to get up at 5am and do my yoga - and I’m not compromising unless it’s for my children and close friends.”

You can listen to the full My Life in a Biscuit Tin episode with Sadie Frost on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also watch the full interview on the Good Housekeeping YouTube channel.

2025-03-13T12:57:14Z