Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis feels the stress of being a trusted voice in the UK is “very difficult to manage”, he said.
Lewis says people see him as an “incredibly robust” person given the way he comes across on TV, but he is actually “quite a brittle person”.
The financial journalist and consumer champion told The Media Show on BBC Radio 4: “I’m tired”.
The 51-year-old, who hosts The Martin Lewis Money Show Live on ITV, described the pressure of being one of the UK’s most trusted voices as “horrendous” and “awful”.
Martin Lewis opens up about the stress and pressure of being a trusted voice in the UK
“It’s an incredible compliment, but I find it very difficult,” he said.
“I have my dark days mental health-wise.
“One of the greatest difficulties with me is you think, ‘Have I got it right? Have I got it right? Have I got it right?'”
His “professional paranoia” has been his greatest strength over the past 20 years, he said.
“I try to take breaks, I do some breathing… Lots and lots of walking, I do huge amounts of exercise,” he said.
Who is Martin Lewis?
“But I do find the stress very difficult to manage, and I would not set myself up as an example of how to manage and cope with huge levels of stress when it’s going through, because I’m really poor at it, and I tend to find most of the time I can deal with it, and then I have periods where I find it very, very difficult to deal with, and I struggle with some functionality to be able to do it.”
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Later in the interview, Lewis described himself as an “absolute perfectionist pedant”.
“My first rule is know it inside out to two levels deeper than the amount you’re going to explain… I like to have a model in my head of how things work,” he added.
Listen to The Media Show on BBC Radio 4 or hear the full interview on BBC Sounds.
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