Chris Hughes was reduced to tears as he opened up about his secret battle with anxiety at the launch of a campaign for World Mental Health Day.
The Love Island star, 22, struggled to compose himself as he admitted to "suffering silently" before reaching out to his mother for help.
Speaking as he took on his new role as ambassador for CALM, the Campaign Against Living Miserably, he said: “I suffered silently initially and that was the issue, there’s the phrase ‘suffering silently’ and that’s where things were tough for me.
“It was when I opened up to my mum initially that things became easier and stuff...”
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Hughes trailed off before holding his head in his hands as he fought back tears.
The event comes a day after he launched his own mineral water, L’Eau de Chris, to symbolise the fact that 84 per cent of UK men say they bottle up their emotions.
A black and white advert, shot by Rankin, which showed the reality TV star sipping water infused with his own tears left fans confused.
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But he today revealed it was part of the #DontBottleItUp campaign which aims to highlight how men across the UK often bottle up their emotions.
Speaking about the shoot, Hughes said: “Yesterday everyone was shocked that I had literally bottled my emotions in a water bottle infused with my tears.
"And as the L’Eau de Chris name suggested, doing that would have been ludicrous; yet this is what men across the UK are doing every single day.
“What's really ludicrous is that suicide is still the single biggest killer of young men in the UK. We live in a culture that encourages men to ‘man up’ and bottle things up.”