The TV presenter was keen to offer her help to Vanessa (Picture: Shutterstock/ITV)
Ulrika Jonsson has offered her tips to Vanessa Feltz on how to recover from heartbreak, agreeing that ‘it stinks’.
Vanessa, 60, recently announced the end of her 16-year romance with fiancé Ben Ofoedu, 50, confessing she was ‘shocked, sad and disappointed’ to be in this position.
Their relationship was recently hit by infidelity claims, with Vanessa reportedly discovering social media messages between Ben and other women.
Swedish-British TV presenter Ulrika rushed to offer her ‘heartfelt condolences’ to Vanessa on the break-up in her latest column, referring to the fallout from a split as ‘the kind of agony that envelops your entire being and affects every aspect of your life’.
Ulrika also called it a ‘cruel double whammy’ for Vanessa, after her first husband, surgeon Dr Michael Kurer, walking out on her following his cheating after 17 years of marriage.
‘It has crippled me many times.
Vanessa has been open about how she is struggling in the aftermath of her split (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)
She was with fiancé Ben for 16 years, pictured here together last year (Picture: Getty)
‘It has left me feeling physically paralysed, emotionally suffocated and psychologically bewildered in one fell swoop – sadly, on more than one occasion,’ Ulrika wrote in The Sun.
However, the 55-year-old, who has been married three times and was most recently divorced in 2019, was keen to offer practical advice to the regular This Morning contributor.
Vanessa appeared on the ITV morning show on Wednesday, where she urged viewers to contact her about the best ways to get over heartbreak, rather than the other way around, as usual.
Ulrika recommended relying on friends and getting a dog, as well as not delaying coping with the pain of heartbreak (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)
‘If you’ve got stuff that you want to tell me, I’d be really grateful to receive it, because I really feel like I’m in the eye of the storm at the moment. I haven’t got to the bit where I can look back on it, I’m right in it,’ she admitted.
Ulrika’s practical advice to the broadcaster and former BBC Radio 2 DJ was straight forward and written from her own experience.
First, she urged Vanessa to rely on ‘the immeasurable love and friendship of family, close friends – and sometimes even strangers’ that would be able to ‘help keep you upright’.
The TV star with her third husband Brian Monet in 2012, whom she later divorced in 2019 (Picture: Ben Pruchnie/Getty Images)
She also told her to allow herself to be tearful and to ‘cry as much as you can’.
‘You’re in part lamenting what was, and in part what should have been,’ she explained.
Her third tip was for Vanessa to ‘distract herself’ and to ‘go and do fun things’, whether it be a night out, a massage or ‘hitting the pinot’.
Ulrika was careful not to encourage her media pal to bury how she feels though, saying she should ‘ride out’ her heartbreak.
‘I’m not saying I embrace it lovingly but I’d rather suffer the pain as it’s happening than pretend I’m fine, then have a nervous breakdown three months down the line,’ she wrote.
The former Gladiators presenter also suggested that getting a dog might not fix a broken heart, ‘but their love is unconditional, and mine have kept me going through many a heartbreak’.
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Finally, Ulrika urged Vanessa not to ‘hide her tears’ from her daughters, Allegra, 37, and Saskia, 34, as ‘kids shouldn’t fear pain and heartbreak’.
Vanessa said her heart had ‘snapped into a million pieces’ following the separation and confessed she was worried about the future, but was determined to ‘keep on trucking’.
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Ulrika rushed to give her ‘heartfelt condolences’ alongside the more practical tips.
