8 Out Of 10 Cats star Jon Richardson: My OCD illness has 'dominated my life'

A long battle with OCD made Jon Richardson’s life 'miserable and hermit-like'.

17:17 27 November 2014

Jon Richardson, one of the most popular comedy stars and TV panelists in Britain, had admitted that OCD has dominated his life. His battle against the illness made his life "miserable and hermit-like". Now 32 years old and happily engaged, he says he is now doing well. 

 

He explains: “To say I wasn’t such a hit with the ladies would be a very kind way of putting it. I was a slow-burner, shall we say.

 

"It’s all about confidence and I wasn’t confident at all. And the OCD probably kicked in when I was in my teens.

 

“I was pretty much single for my entire 20s. It was solitary. Before that no relationship lasted longer than six months. Sarah was my basically my first serious one.

 

“I just compartmentalised it. It was a bit like when I played table tennis at the age of 21, realised I was s*** at it and never played it again. That’s what I did with relationships for 10 years.

 

“I got a lot done though. It was a productive period. A lot of tidying, all my paperwork and filing... all my old bank statements were all in order.

 

"I had plenty of time to do that. One of the reasons I was single for so long was that it was so fruitful for my material.

 

"It took me a lot of maturing to realise that, actually, my happiness is probably more important than my comedy.”