News presenter reveals his struggle to cope with anorexic daughter's illness

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy A British news presenter has revealed how he told his anorexic daughter to “starve herself to death”, in a brutally honest account of his struggle to deal with her illness. Television presenter Mark Austin said that in the early days of his daughter Maddy’s eating disorder he “failed utterly to grasp that she was seriously mentally ill” and thought she was being “selfish” and “pathetic” when she lashed out when challenged about how little she was eating. In a first-hand account published in the Sunday Times, Mr Austin, best known for formerly presenting the ITV Evening News, describes watching his daughter “wilfully destroying herself” when she became ill as a teenager in 2012, and admits that he initially failed to deal with the situation in the right way. What I failed utterly to grasp was that she was seriously mentally ill and could not see a future for herself.” Mark Austin reveals daughter's anorexia battle: 'She was shrinking away before our eyes' Following a failed spell as an in-patient at a private hospital that used forced feeding, Maddy was treated in an NHS daycare unit at Farnham Hospital in Surrey which, Mr Austin says, “saved her life”.