Alison Hammond: 'I thought I was having heart attack on air'

Alison Hammond revealed she feared she was suffering a heart attack while on air. In a conversation with former BBC Breakfast presenter and scientist Dr Sian Williams – author of a publication on anxiety – Hammond described her apprehension about returning to This Morning. She said she had been uncertain about coming back, adding that if she did not return that week she might never do so. "I'll beryllium honorable with you, I was anxious astur coming back. But I thought, if I don't travel backmost today, I astir apt wouldn't travel back," Hammond stated. She also reflected on her thoughts about the show's role in her anxiety: "I really thought, I don't deliberation I'll travel back, due to the fact that past I would person made a happening that it's This Morning that's causing the panic. But it tin hap anywhere. It comes successful ebbs and flows." Discussing the demands of live television, Hammond and Williams noted the pressure of being constantly "on". Hammond remarked: "I bash unrecorded TV each the time, I didn't realise it was having - I don't know if it was having an interaction - the information that you person to beryllium 'on' successful bid to bash it. I don't know." She closed the segment with: "I'm back, babes. Keep rolling." After leaving last Friday's episode, Hammond posted a video from a hospital bed, saying she was "getting my aged ticker checked out" following what she described as "a small spot of a palpitation", which she hoped "was conscionable a small panic attack". The presenter missed the Attitude Awards on Wednesday, an event at which she received the The Honorary Gay Award. Born in Birmingham, Hammond continues to host programmes including This Morning and For the Love of Dogs. Read the full story at BBC News →