The 46-year-old chef, who has been a judge on the BBC cookery competition for 14 years, revealed that she had to make the difficult decision for her mental health.
She revealed this week, ‘It was getting dark,’ citing her tight schedule as the chef-proprietor of London’s Mere.
‘I’ve only been able to commit time to the show — it’s three months – when my team is strong and I can balance my family, the restaurant, and all my other commitments,’ she said on The One Show.
‘When I’m filming, people don’t realize that I work for a 12-hour day and then return to the restaurant in the evening.’
‘At the moment, things are out of whack – things are difficult.’ I’m attempting to spend time with my family; I have an unwell nephew whom I try to visit, and filming was beginning at the same time.’
Monica stated that she was walking to her kitchen after the interview when she realized things were becoming too much for her.
‘I’m short at the restaurant,’ she continued, ‘I’m back in my kitchen right after this.’ This time, I simply couldn’t keep the balance.
‘Something had to give for my mental health because things were getting extremely dark…
You can’t always do everything.’
Her nephew was diagnosed with a desmoplastic small round cell tumor and is currently undergoing treatment, she stated.
‘They say it’s not a cure.’ It’s simply buying us time,’ she explained to The New York Times, adding that doctors have given him three months to survive.
The family is presently fundraising to enroll Otis in a therapeutic trial, and she traveled out to see him in New Zealand for a week earlier this month.
