Death in Paradise star reveals secret two-year health battle that made her ‘want to hand herself into the police’
DEATH in Paradise and Fresh Meat star Kimberley Nixon has spoken about a two-year health battle that made her “lose herself”.
The actress, who was diagnosed with Autism and ADHD, said she suffered postnatal OCD after giving birth to her first child in 2020.
OCD is a mental health condition, where a person has obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours.
Kimberley, 40, welcomed her son via IVF and gave birth during the Covid pandemic, but shortly after began to develop symptoms.
During the height of her struggle, she recalled fearing for those around her and was terrified she would harm someone.
Speaking on I’m ADHD! No You’re Not podcast, Kimberley said: “That is the scariest thing that has ever happened to me. Yeah.
“Not knowing whether I could trust myself for like two years.
“I was like, where have I gone? Where have I, and no one’s calling me by my name anymore.
“Every time I went to speak to someone, I was just mum.
“Just mum, mum. I was like, I couldn’t remember who I was. It was really brutal.”
She admitted she wanted to hand herself into the police to prevent her from hurting anyone due to the condition.
The TV star continued: “At some point I was like, to the point where it wouldn’t, it was like clockwork orange wouldn’t stop. Yeah.
“And I was like, I came downstairs and I just went,
I’m gonna go to the police station. And my husband was like, ‘what are you gonna tell them?’
“That I could possibly in the future at some point do something bad.”
Kimberley was eventually diagnosed with perinatal OCD.
This is when you experience OCD during pregnancy or in the first year after giving birth.
Last June, Kimberley revealed she was diagnosed with ADHD and Autism.
She shared a collage of photos of herself crying “happy tears” and shared an update with her fans.
Kimberley wrote: “Happy tears. Still processing. Haven’t read the full report yet but…
“Today I was clinically diagnosed with Autism and ADHD.
“I feel lighter than I have in a long time because instead of feeling like my brain is “broken”, I know now that it was just doing things differently all this time.”
She continued: “I want to go back in time and give my younger self a cwtch and save her a lot of time and heartache but I can’t change anything about how I got here really because then I wouldn’t be me.
“I’ve always shared the ups and downs – so I wanted to share this with the most compassionate and accepting bunch I know – and that’s been you lot over these past few years.
“From the midst of brutal Postnatal OCD through to today’s diagnosis, a lot of you have been with me every step of the way. Thank you, thank you.”
Before Fresh Meat, Kimberley had been in films Wild Child and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging.
Since the show she’s appeared in Ordinary Lies, Death in Paradise and ITV drama The Salisbury Poisonings.
