Will Young admits he’s ready to date again and start a family after PTSD battle

The former Pop Idol winner is looking to settle down now his life is back on track 
Moving on: Will Young is ready to settle down and start a family
TOM VAN SCHELVEN
The Weekender

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Will Young says he is ready to get married and have children after battling back from illness and seeing a renaissance in his career.

The singer, who won Pop Idol in 2002, said he was “getting better every day” and found his new role co-hosting a podcast “wonderful”.

Though single, he said he has started dating again and would like to start a family. He told ES Magazine: “Oh yeah. I’d be a great parent. I love kids.

“I mean, it changes from day to day, I think. The problem with being a gay man, I say, is that I can’t sleep with my boyfriend and magically produce a child. So there’s a lot more time to think. I can’t go, ‘We’re trying for a baby’.

"There’s a little bit of chance to it when it’s like that, it’s still quite laissez-faire.”

Next role: Will Young will tread the boards in Cabaret
Jim Marks

He said his post traumatic stress disorder, diagnosed in 2012, had meant he could not have relationships — but he overcame it using dating apps.

“I met my last boyfriend on Tinder. It was great,” he said. “I got to it because I hadn’t had sex for two years, because I’d been so ill.

"I couldn’t look at my face in the mirror, it was pretty hard to have sex. I couldn’t go out to clubs because I was still a bit agoraphobic.”

Young, 38, revealed that he has spent more than half a million pounds on therapy to deal with PTSD and, although recovering, still suffered panic attacks.

The most recent was three weeks ago when he should have been performing at Wilderness Festival in Oxfordshire. He said: “I couldn’t get out of the car. I was there for five hours. I really tried. I just couldn’t.”

He believes his illness is the result of bullying at school, being separated at birth from his twin when his brother needed extra care, and the struggle of coming to terms with being gay.

“It just happens occasionally, still. It’s just part of my life. It’s getting better every day,” he said.

Young, who has moved back to London after living in Cornwall for a while, has been helped by his new role as co-host of podcast Homo Sapiens.

He said: “The best thing is it’s not about me. Everything I do has always been about me.

“That’s wearing. More and more, to the point where I won’t do it and I’m now just doing these things. I feel like I can be myself, which is why it’s all so wonderful.”

Now working on a covers album and about to start a UK tour of Cabaret, he said people recognise him less these days or mistake him for another talent show star.

He said: “Of course it bothers me. I mean, it doesn’t get to the core of me. But I’ve got an ego. Also, it’s reflective of how my business is going to be doing.

“Me being recognised is part of the brand. They think I’m Olly Murs, it’s awful.”

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