Michael Ball 'couldn't leave flat' during months-long career break after panic attacks

Michael Ball has opened up about a difficult time in his life, where he was forced to take a months-long career break after suffering with his health.

The world-renowned singer appeared on a repeat episode of Love Your Weekend on Sunday morning alongside duet partner Alfie Boe and opened up about the difficult time.

Michael was performing in the Les Miserables stage show at the time and after it all got too much for him following a series of panic attacks, he decided to quit.

He told Alan: "I withdrew from Les Mis because I had terrible stage fright and panic attacks and walked out of the show."

Alan proceeded to ask him when this was, to which he responded: "This was 1986, right at the beginning when I had the brightest future going and I thought I'd lost it all."

British theatrical producer Cameron Mackintosh, who produced Les Miserables, managed to get in touch with Michael and convinced him to return to the West End.

Michael divulged: "I found my way back in, thank goodness Cameron rang me up and said, "Darling, back on the horse, you're going into Phantom" and it was a pivotal moment.

Alan asked him how long he was dealing with this as he expressed: "For nine months I just stayed in my flat, I became completely agoraphobic."

"How do you deal with that?" the host enquired as the opera singer explained: "I should have talked to people but I didn't and that was the mistake I had."

Michael admitted he still deals with anxiety and nerves before going on stage, but has managed to find ways to deal with it. He referenced that he taps his hand as a coping mechanism to calm his nerves.

Michael's career has spanned nearly a whopping 40 years, with his work across theatre, television, radio and music.

In 1992, he represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest and managed to come in second place with his song One Step Out Of Time.

Love Your Weekend airs Sundays at 9:30am on ITV1 and ITVX