Ian Youngs
Culture reporter
Clara Amfo reveals depression influenced her decision to leave BBC Radio 1She joined Radio 1 in 2015, taking over Fearne Cotton’s slot, and left in 2024″I was in the flipping trenches,” Amfo says of her mental health in early 2023She also wanted to leave before the job felt “forced or like it’s a chore”Former BBC Radio 1 DJ Clara Amfo has spoken about how depression played a part in her decision to leave the station last year.
Amfo has previously spoken about her periods of struggling with her mental health and anxiety, and told Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place podcast last week she has “dealt with deep, deep, deep depression in my life”.
She told her former Radio 1 colleague she decided to leave the station partly because she felt “completely satiated” by the job and didn’t want it to become “a chore”.
But she went on to say she was suffering from depression in 2023 and took a break “to have a little reset”, before deciding to leave for good.
Amfo joined Radio 1 in 2015 and took over Cotton’s mid-morning slot the same year, before moving to Annie Mac’s evening show in 2021. Amfo left the station in March 2024.
She also took part in Strictly Come Dancing in 2020, co-hosted the Brit Awards last year, and is a regular presenter on BBC One’s The One Show.
She told Cotton her depression had become particularly bad at the start of 2023.
“Mate, I was in the flipping trenches,” she said. “I think I was burnt out, I wasn’t taking care of myself properly, I think I was a bit sort of overwhelmed by life’s weird – not weird, valid – injustices.
“I just wasn’t feeling great and I was in a bit of a negative headspace, and yeah I was really, really depressed mid-2023, and I took some time off of radio, and just had to have a little reset. And that’s when I decided I was going to leave my show, actually, at the time.”
Cotton, who has previously said she left Radio 1 because the job was “ruining her mind”, told Amfo she had also experienced “very, very low mental health in periods”.
Amfo also spoke about other factors behind her departure from Radio 1 earlier in the interview, saying she was determined not “to resent anything that I do” in her job.
“I don’t ever want anything to feel like it’s being forced or like it’s a chore. And I wasn’t feeling that way, but I want to be able to listen to music as a fan always, rather than as a business,” she explained.
“I want to be able to talk to people on a human level, rather than thinking, I’ve got to get that viral interview clip.”
She quoted a comment that Annie Mac told her when she left. “She was just like, ‘Yeah babe, I’m just ready to do my next thing’.
“And I think that’s how I felt. I felt so completely satiated by it and I was like, well, I think there’s nothing new for me to do. I could carry on and do it. I could. But I think one thing I learned is just because you can do something doesn’t mean you always should.”
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