Jo's Suicide Bid (Sun Interview)
Jo was rushed to hospital and had her stomach pumped to save her life.She was only 14 at the time and the suicide bid was the only way she could see out of her bullying nightmare.Now she has spoken exclusively about her painful past to help kids today who are the victims of bullies.
Jo, 21, said: "I just want to let kids know that suicide is not the way out. That just makes you look weak and it makes the bullies look strong."The star says that even now she still bears the scars of being beaten up and mentally tortured as a child.Her bullying ordeal began when she joined Bower Park School in Romford, Essex, when she was ten. Four girls began picking on her daily, making every moment of her waking hours a nightmare.
"They would say, 'you think you're so pretty, you think you're so popular, you think you have a good voice..They would make me stand on tables and sing. It was just general bitchiness and being nasty. Anything to make me feel bad. The fear was constant from the moment I woke up to the moment I went to bed."I used to have a lot of nightmares. It was the thought of getting up and going through it all again the next day. It was playing on my mind all the time."
After four years of hell, Jo was desperate to escape the bullying. So one day at school she crammed dozens of headache pills into her mouth and waited for a final release from her torture.
Her voice shaking, Jo recalled the lowest point of her life. She said: "I got really depressed and I thought there was no way out. I was really down and I knew I had to do something about it.
"I took the pills at school in front of the bullies. I wanted to show them what they were making me do to myself - to let them see how wrong they were. But they just tried to put the pills down my throat themselves - they tried to help me. I had to go to hospital and get my stomach pumped."In a way it was my cry for help because I couldn't see any way out.
Jo was so terrified of the bullies that she had been unable to tell her parents what she was suffering.She said: "If a bully tells you not to say anything you don't. I know people say you should stand up for yourself. But you can't stand up for yourself because if you are a victim of it and they say don't say anything you don't."I also didn't tell anyone because I felt so embarrassed about it. I don't know why, but you feel stupid. It is a very degrading thing to go through - it is not something you want to admit.
"Everybody at school ignored it. The girls that were doing it were big girls and everyone was scared of them. The teachers might have seen what was going on but they were not any help. I was completely on my own."
When Jo recovered from her overdose the story of her ordeal emerged. Her parents then moved her to the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in the City of London where she finally escaped the bullies.
She said: "When I knew I wasn't going back it was such a relief. I took a few months off to get myself together.
"I've never discussed my ordeal openly before but I hope this shows bullies how cruel they can be. But when I was on stage that was my place and no one could get me..." I've never discussed my ordeal openly before but I hope this shows bullies how cruel they can be.But when I was on stage that was my place and no one could get me...
Jo certainly has a lot to be happy about today.She hopes her success will give a positive message to other victims of bullies.
She said: "I am so proud of myself - and I am so happy that those pills didn't work."