Joe Wicks has told Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby on This Morning that he originally used fitness to escape problems that were going on at home. The 36-year-old fitness coach and TV presenter was talking on Monday, May 16 ahead of his BBC documentary, Joe Wicks: Facing My Childhood - and he revealed that he was also "the naughty kid" at school.
"Help didn't exist for me at school but what I did do was the gym," he said as he delved deeper into his past. "Exercise was my medication. I released all that anger and frustration through fitness," he told Phillip and Holly. He added: "There's stuff locked inside you when you're a kid that you don't want to confront."
Joe, who gained recognition for his home workouts whioch were broadcast on YouTube during lockdown, told the pair that the documentary was, "one of the most challenging things [he'd] ever done".
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In the film, he opens up about his childhood with a heroin-addicted father and mother with OCD. He said: "All of those experiences have shaped who I am today." He added: "It was a really difficult and emotional documentary but we've repaired that relationship now."
The strain on the relationship was caused by his father Gary's addiction to heroin, which is explored in great detail in the documentary. Talking to Phillip and Holly, Joe talked about how, when he was younger, he didn't understand his mother Raquela's excessive cleaning. "She would make me clean my room twice a day," he said.
For the national hero, the documentary began as a way of exploring the link between mental health and fitness but during the process of making the programme, the topic became more of a personal journey. "In my head, it was going to be about other families," he said as a clip was shown in which Joe talked to his father.
In the interview, Joe tells Phillip and Holly that his experiences at home meant that he became, "the naughty kid" at school and he described how he'd often misbehave in the classroom. Whereas there was little to no help for Joe in school, the gym provided him with a mode of escape. "No one talked about it. No one explained what was going on. The documentary is about when can we bring the kids into the (mental health) conversation," he explained.
"It's given me that drive and empathy to want to help others and share this story," said Joe.
Joe Wicks: Facing My Childhood is on BBC One at 9pm on Monday, May 16
