BBC Documentaries

Freddie Flintoff: Living with Bulimia (2020x175)

: 28, 2020

In this powerful and unflinching documentary, Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff goes on an acutely personal journey into the eating disorder he has kept secret for over 20 years – bulimia. Freddie reveals how bulimia has played a part in the course of his life. He discusses his experience in visceral detail and meets specialists and young men with eating disorders across the UK. Together they challenge, with incredible honesty and humility, some of the stereotypes that men and boys in their position face – that is, suffering with a serious mental health condition that is perceived to be something ‘only girls get’ – and finally give a public voice to a much-misunderstood illness. Experts estimate that over 1.5 million people in the UK have an eating disorder like bulimia, of which 25 per cent are male. And yet eating disorders are still considered to be illnesses that only teenage girls suffer with. As a result, boys and men with eating disorders most often live in silence with the double stigma of having a mental health condition that is not recognised in their gender. Ultimately, Freddie must ask himself whether he needs professional treatment to tackle his eating disorder once and for all.