Kate Ritchie is taking a break from her Nova radio show after intrusive photos of her in distress were captured and circulated by tabloid outlet Daily Mail. Photo / Getty Images
Kate Ritchie is taking a break from her Nova radio show after intrusive photos of her in distress were captured and circulated by tabloid outlet Daily Mail. Photo / Getty Images
The Australian actress has confirmed she’s taking a mental health break after intrusive photos of her were published online.
Nova radio host Kate Ritchie has this morning issued a public statement announcing she’s taking a break from her radio show to focus on her mental health.
The announcement comes days after tabloid outlet Daily Mail published invasive paparazzi photos that showed Ritchie appearing distressed as she spoke on the phone in a park.
In her statement, released to her Instagram account today, Ritchie confirmed that she “wasn’t OK” when the vision was taken, and called out the paparazzi for their “relentless stalking” of her.
“The images of me taken last week show that I wasn’t OK on that day. My struggle is not helped by the relentless stalking of the paparazzi, in fact they are making it much worse,” she wrote.
Ritchie asked those “profiting from invading (her) privacy” one question: “would you treat your sister, mother or daughter the same, if they had similar challenges?”
Ritchie explained that her mental health issues were “deeply personal” and had “proven to be a bigger challenge” than she imagined.
She did not say how long her break from Nova’s Fitzy and Wippa with Kate Ritchie programme will be, but thanked the station and listeners for their support.
Her co-hosts addressed her absence on-air today, offering their support and criticising the decision to film Ritchie in distress “and use the footage for commercial gain” rather than checking to see if she was okay.
The Daily Mail attracted widespread condemnation for their story about Ritchie, peppered with paparazzi photos and video of the former Home and Away star seemingly unaware she was being filmed and in visible distress.
“Video obtained by Daily Mail Australia shows the former actress crying while on the phone, wiping tears from her eyes and burying her head in her hands,” the outlet boasted.
Posting the story to their Facebook page, the Daily Mail announced that Ritchie “looks incredibly worse for wear”.
“The Daily Mail’s video of Kate Ritchie is f***ed. You don’t post that,” one person tweeted.
Kate Ritchie with her Nova co-hosts Ryan 'Fitzy' Fitzgerald (left) and Michael 'Wippa' Wipfli. Photo / Getty Images
“What a horrible intrusion on her privacy when she is obviously going through a tough time. Have a heart and back off,” read a top-rated comment on Facebook.
“She is clearly going through something and struggling. Instead of calling authorities or asking her if she needed help or was OK, they recorded her. horrible,” another person wrote.
“Stalking her the answer is it? Shameful,” said another.
Popular Australian author Constance Hall also slammed the “disgraceful” decision to publish the photos, “instead of putting the f***ing camera down and asking her and her CHILD if they need help.”
The mother-of-one shared at the time how she had developed an “unhealthy reliance on alcohol”, which led her to quietly seek help.
“I decided to use this time to do something positive by getting the help I need from professionals who specialise in this area,” she wrote.
“As everyone would understand, this is a very big step for me to take.
“It is a shocking invasion of my privacy that the Daily Mail, through their unrelenting stalking of me, has forced me to issue this public statement, in their blatant attempt to publicly shame me on a private health matter.”
