Louise Redknapp rose to fame as a member of Eternals in the 1990s, but says she was struggling with a health condition at the height of music career
Louise Redknapp shot to fame as a member of the girl group Eternals before tying the knot with England midfielder Jamie Redknapp in the 1990s. But during the height of her career she battled a skin condition that doctors said was the “worst they’ve seen in a long time”.
Louise, who turns 51 today, says she was diagnosed with hyperpigmentation as a child. The condition is when areas of the skin darken due to an increase in melanin production.
It can result in dark spots or circles on the body. Louise says her hyperpigmentation was at its worst in her twenties, shortly after she gave birth to her eldest son Charley, who she shares with ex-husband Jamie.
She says she would have self-esteem issues whenever the condition would flare up. Speaking to the ECHO, Louise said: “I said that I looked like I had the world map on my face.
“The pigmentation that I suffered with after having my first child saw one dermatologist say it was the worst they had seen in a really long time. And it really affected my confidence, because on one hand, I was so happy having this gorgeous baby, and on the other hand, I didn’t know what I was going to do with my face.”
Mum-of-two Louise said confidence issues meant she struggled to live in the moment. She added: “There’s been lots of times in life that maybe being worried about how I looked has held me back from really living in the moment and enjoying things.
“Every moment being on the beach, worrying that somebody might take a picture of you from an unflattering angle. I spent most of my holidays lying flat in the hope that no one would spot me.”
Louise urged anyone else suffering from hyperpigmentation to try and remain positive. She says that while individuals may notice the flare ups, other people may not.
She added: “The things that we think are terrible – blemishes on our face, pigment on our face – people might notice it, but it’s not the first thing they judge you on, and if it is, you don’t want to know them anyway.
“Trying to keep a positive mental attitude is really tough but just remember that everybody’s fighting their own battles and believe you me, whatever you’re fighting at that time will not beat the forefront of their mind.”
Louise ‘desperately’ trying to ‘survive’
The Let’s Go Round Again singer has previously opened up about a time in her life when she was “struggling” and trying to keep her “head above water”. On Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place podcast, Louise revealed she had taken antidepressants to get her “head above the ground”.
However she found they made her gain weight, leaving her “hating” how she looked in pictures. “I always remember like going to…I think it was the BRITS or somewhere, and they’d made me put weight on, and it was the lesser of two evils,” she explained.
She continued: “For some reason, I put weight on. I was unconfident in how it looked to my body, yet at the same time, I was trying to keep my head above water. I was trying to desperately just survive in the world that we live in.”
Louise says she had wanted to “come out” and talk about how she was “struggling”. She told Fearne she also wanted to say “sorry” that she “wasn’t perfect”.
‘Really bad’ health battle after finding fame
Louise has also spoken about how she suffered with OCD when she was in Eternal. She said she felt it was the “the only thing I could control in my life” during an emotional interview on This Morning in 2020.
Louise said: “For many years I suffered from OCD in a really big way, looking back I think it most probably came from it being the only thing I could control in my life.
“Going on you do work and start to understand the illness a bit more, but I hope people out there that suffer might realise they’re not alone. I had it really badly. It used to take me 20 minutes to go to bed at night. I’ve come a long way since those days. And it has helped me to write it all down.”
While Louise admits she was “really lucky” to be in the band, she says she now feels like she “could have dealt with things” differently and “maybe not worried so much,” reports MailOnline.
She starred in Eternal alongside Easther and Vernie Bennett as well as Kéllé Bryan. As a four piece, their first album Always and Forever reached number two in the UK chart, selling over four million copies globally.
