Casey Batchelor On The Couch : ‘Having A Baby Massively Tested My Relationship'

New mum Casey Batchelor, 34, opens up to Closer’s therapist Emma Kenny about childhood bullying, being unlucky in love and finally finding happiness.

Tell me a bit about your childhood…

I grew up with my mum, Kim, dad, Gary, and two older brothers. Then, when I was about ten, my mum fell in love with another woman and they began a relationship. My parents divorced and my mum’s partner moved into ours with her daughter, but I didn’t realise they were a couple until I was older. I’m really close to my mum, and her partner is like a second mother to me. I’m very close to my dad, too.

Were you a happy child?

I was at home, but not at school. I was in the “it” crowd of girls, but they weren’t nice to me. They’d go out after school and not invite me. I remember being asked along on one of their holidays once, but another of the girls said to me, “If you come then none of us are going to go”. It wasn’t nice, I didn’t like school at all and felt very lonely. But it’s made me thick-skinned and, even now, when I get trolled, I let it wash over me.

Tell me about your experience of being bullied as an adult…