Heston Blumenthal reveals impact of being sectioned in BBC bipolar documentary
Heston Blumenthal has spoken of his struggles with mania and the impact it had on the people he loves, 18 months after he was sectioned.
The 59-year-old chef, known for his Channel 4 shows Heston's Fantastical Food and Heston's Feasts, was hospitalised in November 2023 following a severe manic episode. He was subsequently diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
Now, Blumenthal is sharing his story in BBC documentary Heston: My Life with Bipolar, airing 19 June on BBC Two at 8pm.
Filmed over six months, Blumenthal reflects on how bipolar disorder has shaped both his personal life and professional success.
Blumenthal was sectioned after he showed his wife, French businesswoman Melanie Ceysson, a drawing of a gun he'd hallucinated. Fearing he was a danger to himself, Ceysson contacted the mayor of their village in France for urgent help.
Soon after, police, firefighters and a doctor arrived. Blumenthal was sedated and spent two weeks in a psychiatric hospital, followed by six weeks of intensive treatment at a specialist clinic. "It was a dark period," he recalled. "The psychiatrist diagnosed me as bipolar; it was a surprise. I started looking back more and more to my life pre being sectioned, and how come it's taken me until 57 years of life to discover I have bipolar."
The intervention followed months of increasingly erratic behaviour. Now stabilised on medication, Blumenthal says those manic phases are behind him.
"When I first came out of the hospital in the beginning, it felt like I was slightly zombie-fied from the medication. I've changed a lot, in the sense of my massive highs and lows have been ironed out. I'm much calmer, I don't have those manic phases," he explained.
"Would I have sectioned myself? No way [but] she had to do it for me and for herself as well. Looking back at it, the alternative was not an option because I wouldn't be here anymore."
Bipolar disorder involves extreme mood swings, which Blumenthal says often fuelled his work. At times, his productivity felt "unstoppable".
"The depression [gave] way to what I now recognise as periods of mania … with hindsight, when I was in a manic state, there were so many ideas," the chef, best known for his experimental dishes including snail porridge and bacon and egg ice cream, shared.
He added: "I had these feelings of grandiosity or like Superman. I believed that I could change the world."
It was during those periods that he developed some of his most daring and unconventional culinary ideas. But by 2020, the mood swings were becoming more frequent – and more severe.
During the height of his career, the chef said he became "a hamster on a wheel," and self-medicated with cocaine. He explained: "I didn't realise I was self-medicating at the time ... The more time goes on since I've come out of the hospital, the more I can see how extreme those [manic episodes] were."
Also in the documentary, Blumenthal revisits some of his past television appearances, offering a stark glimpse into his mental state at the time. Watching a 2019 episode of the cooking show Crazy Delicious, he recalled being in a "dark place."
"I was probably quite overly depressed then," he said. "I thought, 'I wondered if there was a gun here, would I use it?' There wasn't, and then I thought of other ways of ending it and decided at the end that I wasn't ready for that."
In sharp contrast, he also rewatched a 2020 BBC interview where he discussed using robots in the kitchen, speaking rapidly and using surreal metaphors throughout. The clip was difficult for him to watch.
"To live with me, if I was talking like that all the time, that brings tears to my eyes, of the thought of what they had to put up with," he said. "The potential that I might have upset, troubled, worried, emotionally harmed the people that love me and that I love."
The chef is a father of four: Jack, 32, Jessie, 30, and Joy, 28, from his first marriage to ex-wife Zanna; and Shea-Rose, eight, with his former partner, Stephanie Gouevia.
In the documentary, he sits down with his son Jack to discuss what life was like before his bipolar diagnosis.
"We just wanted a relaxing conversation with our dad, and we weren't able to have one. It was horrible and it was constant,' Jack recalled. "We'd plan it three weeks in advance, getting prepared just to see you for half an hour. And there was nothing I could do to help you."
Heston wiped away a tear and apologised to his son. Jack, in turn, acknowledged that he now understands his father's behaviour was the result of an undiagnosed mental health condition.
Blumenthal now serves as an official ambassador for Bipolar UK, a charity that estimates around 1.3 million adults in the UK live with the condition.
In the documentary, he raises concerns about the lack of adequate support and resources for people living with bipolar disorder. At one point, he meets a mother whose daughter, Rebecca, died by suicide.
"I was lucky in that with my sectioning, I was being monitored and afterwards I had support," he explained. "But with the nature of this condition, if there isn't the care, the support network around individuals with bipolar, then people like Rebecca will take their lives. The longer it takes to get this sorted out, the more lives will be lost."
Blumenthal also admitted that he initially worried medication might dull his imagination or take away his creativity, fears that, he now says, were unfounded.
He concluded: "I still have bipolar, and I had bipolar before, I just don't have those manic states. The peaks and my manic highs have shrunk and the depths of the lows have risen, but I'm still Heston."
Read more about Heston Blumenthal:
Heston Blumenthal's wife 'saved his life' by having him sectioned for bipolar disorder (Yahoo Life UK, 4-min read)
Mood swings fuelled Heston Blumenthal's genius. But the highs got higher and the lows got darker (BBC News, 5-min read)
Heston Blumenthal's 'unfiltered' story after life-changing diagnosis (Yorkshire Live, 2-min read)
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