Trolls said I was so fat gravy would spill out if I cut myself says Gemma Collins as she reveals abuse over self-harming

GEMMA Collins has told of the sickening abuse she suffered at the hands of trolls after bravely revealing her secret self-harming past.

The reality TV star's documentary on her childhood trauma aired tonight - and Gemma read out the vicious trolling she got for speaking out.

"So attention-seeking. The only thing she cuts is food to shovel in her face," Gemma read out loud on her Channel 4 documentary, Gemma Collins: Self-Harm & Me.

She looked shocked as she said: "I heard she cut her arm and gravy came out."

Another comment read: "You disgusting woman, this is all lies,"

"This silly cow will say anything to sell a story."

Gemma continued to read: "Shut up piggy, nobody cares about you or your family so shut up and disappear."

But brave Gemma insisted: "It doesn't bother me."

The reason the 41-year-old hid her self-harming secret for so long is because she feared she'd be "locked up forever" in a "mental asylum".

Gemma explained that she would wear long sleeves to hide the marks on her arms so teachers and friends never found out.

The TV star said: “I hid it so well. I didn’t do it every day or every week – it was every couple of months.

"But when I did do it, I knew how to cover it up. When I felt pressured I just would cut myself and feel fine again. It was always on my arm and I would feel like the stress had gone.

“But I never ever understood why I did it. People don’t self-harm because they want to kill themselves. It’s really complex."

“When I was growing up you didn’t talk about your problems or aired your dirty laundry in public," she continued.

“So when I started self-harming I couldn’t tell anyone because I was thinking I’m going to get locked up, not going to see my family or friends and I’m going to be in a mental asylum my whole life.”

She went onto say that she never spoke about her self-harming battle because she "was scared".

"I was getting overwhelming emotion and I couldn't cope with it," Gemma is heard saying. "It's something that I've buried for 20 years".

Speaking with her mother Joan in another scene, the former Towie star admits: "It's not like a normal conversation you can have with someone.

"I never told anyone because it was shameful, I was scared. I wish I were brave enough to ask for the help.

"I could've saved myself a lot of pain."