Alex and Charlie have three children together

Alex Jones has opened up about her husband’s health battle, revealing he’s “in a way better place” compared to where he was a year ago. 

The One Show host, 48, married insurance broker Charlie Thompson in 2015. Since exchanging vows,  the pair have welcomed three children – sons Teddy and Kit and daughter Annie.  

However, Alex – who is on Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh today (June 15) – previously disclosed that Charlie “suffers with his mental health”.

And this month, presenter Alex offered an update on her husband’s struggles.

Alex and Charlie share three children (Credit: Splashnews.com)

Alex Jones on husband’s struggles

Alex recently made an appearance on Gabby Logan’s podcast The MidPoint. 

Touching on Charlie’s struggles last year, Alex shared that he “wasn’t very well”. Gabby then inquired: “How is he now?”

Alex replied: “He’s good, yes. He’s in a way better place now to where we were a year ago but diet has played a huge part in that. We always eat relatively well but he’s quite into nutrition.

“I think it was a way for him as well to fill his days in a sense when he wasn’t feeling well. And he decided to take on this kind of role, right, well, we’ve got the medication, but I’m going to see what else I can do to help myself.

“He used to be a chef so cooking and food is very much something he loves and it brings him a lot of joy.”

Alex Jones says husband became a ‘shadow of himself’

In 2024, Alex spoke out about Charlie’s during an appearance on the How to Fail podcast.

She explained that, at the time, Charlie had been going through a lot, dealing with Lyme Disease followed by viral meningitis, and she watched him “fall apart”.

I found myself at a loss thinking, oh my God, I don’t know what to do here?

“It’s my husband’s own story to tell, so I won’t go into detail, but he suffers with his mental health and we’ve just been through a really bad period where, bless him, he had Lyme Disease and then he had viral meningitis. Lots of things happened recently.

“Charlie’s super fun, but he became a shadow of himself. He was so ill; he really went downhill fast mentally,” she said.

“And again, I found myself at a loss thinking, oh my God, I don’t know what to do here? We all talk a good game, but do we actually know how to help people?”

Alex admitted she felt ‘pressure’ while Charlie was unwell (Credit: Splashnews.com)

‘I thought I was losing him’

While her husband came out the other side, Alex feared that she was “losing him”.

“I thought I was losing him, as in not actually losing him. But I thought, oh my God, where is he? I can’t see him,” she explained. “I was looking at him and I’m thinking, I’m looking and hearing somebody who’s not my husband.”

Alex has admitted that she doesn’t always understand Charlie’s mental health problems. However, she is happy to have open conversations with him about it. She said she listens to “lots of podcasts where depression is discussed at length” to further help her understand.

Alex also confessed that she felt pressure to balance everything while her husband was unwell as she revealed the impact it had on their young family.

She said: “You feel the pressure because suddenly you’re the breadwinner, you’re the parent who is functioning. Just life admin is now your responsibility, plus the person you love most is falling apart in front of you and you’re trying to piece them together without proper understanding of how best to go about that.

“I think it’s worth sharing because it knocks you for six as a family – not just the person going through it, but the person that then has to deal with the fallout of the whole thing. It’s full-on.”

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Charlie’s treatment

Alex admitted that the couple are “lucky” as they were able to seek help for Charlie more quickly by paying to go private.

She shared: “I think the only way to approach it is professional. I said: ‘What I found is, probably the first step is we need to go to the GP. Then these are the people, I’ve got three options for you, do you think you want to ring any of these people and have an initial chat??’”

“And he was like: ‘Well this person sounds a bit more like somebody I could open up to.’ And me taking the legwork out of it for him is what saved it in the end,” she added.