Darragh Ennis revealed the truth behind his break from The Chase during an emotional appearance on Loose Women. 

The Chase star, 44 – who joined the gameshow as a Chaser in 2020 – appeared on the ITV daytime show to talk about grief.

Darragh opened up to Ruth Langsflord, Judi Love, Sally Dynevor and Kelle Bryan about losing his father in July to dementia.

The TV star bravely spoke about how tough things were and how he had to end up taking some time away from The Chase.

Ruth asked if he returned to work straight away, to which Darragh said: ‘Not for a little while afterwards. We had a natural break in filming. But when I did go back to work, and I was put in those stressful situations…

‘On The Chase, the two-minute gap right at the end – the last thing we do is really high pressure, just by nature.

The Chase’s Darragh Ennis has opened up about his break from the ITV on Loose Women after suffering devastating loss

Darragh joined The Chase cast in 2020 after being a contestant in 2017

‘Normally when I start making mistakes, naturally I’d be able to handle it. I’d plant my feet in my head psychologically and go “I made a mistake.” Keep going.

‘This time when I went to put my feet down, there was nothing underneath them. I just fell away.

‘I weirdly got stressed and camera shy, which I never get. The pressure overwhelmed me completely.

‘I had a couple of episodes like that, where every time I tried to reach for that part of myself that is calm under pressure, wasn’t there anymore.

‘At that point the producers talked to me and said “would you like to take a break?”

‘We still had a couple of episodes to film. They offered rather than told.

‘The first time it happened I tried to see if I could shrug it off and I couldn’t.

‘So they arranged for counseling, with a sports psychologist, which might sound strange to some people, it’s a high pressure situation where a lot of people are watching, and these are really good.

Darragh opened up about his grief to the Loose Women panel on Wednesday

‘That’s been really helpful.’

Judi then asked how easy it was to accept the help.

Darragh said: ‘The first time I offered it, I shrugged it away, I really didn’t want to.

‘I didn’t want to admit myself I was failing.

‘I really didn’t want to say “I’m not good enough here.”

‘I’m not doing what I should to the level I should be, it’s a silly thing to do.

‘The second time I was grateful – it was like I was drowning.’

Darragh’s experience has led him on to become an ambassador for charity At A Loss.