Brendan Courtney: ‘Everyone needs to do counselling – it is brilliant’

Brendan Courtney is back with a new series of Keys to My Life. He talks about the power of therapy - and why women need to put themselves first

Brendan Courtney is amassing an impressive multi-hyphenate career. He’s a TV presenter/fashion designer/equality advocate — and since lockdown, a 5km runner too. The common strand in everything he does seems to be a concern for mental health, whether it’s getting out and going for a run to boost his own mood or making a decision early in his career not to engage with negative reality TV that could be damaging to the participants.

There are some raw, emotional moments in the new series of Keys to My Life, as celebrities revisit former homes, and sometimes dark moments of their lives. However, Brendan draws a firm distinction between the type of reality television that he turned his back on (after once being asked by documentary producers to hide Boy George’s passport “so they could film him freaking out”) and the format of the show he has created.