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Newsreader Mark Austin has revealed that he once told his daughter to 'starve to death' after becoming frustrated with her anorexia.

The news anchor for ITV admits that he failed to comprehend the severity of his 22-year-old daughter Maddy's mental illness.

In a candid account written for The Sunday Times Magazine the broadcaster recalled his reaction after trying and failing to get her to eat.

Newsreader Mark Austin has revealed that he once told his daughter Maddy (pictured with her father) to 'starve to death' after failing to understand her anorexia 

He writes: 'I even remember saying, "If you really want to starve yourself to death, just get on with it." And at least once, exasperated and at a loss, I think I actually meant it.'

Mr Austin, 58, went on to say that he failed to grasp the cause of the illness and used to think of it as 'insensitive'. 

He continues: 'I thought it was crass, insensitive, selfish and pathetic. She would lie about how much she had eaten and then explode with rage if we challenged her.' 

Maddy began suffering with the illness during her A-levels and her father admits that he failed to grasp that his daughter had a mental illness 

Mark said that he once thought of the illness as 'crass, insensitive, selfish and pathetic' 

Maddy is now on the road to recovery but this is not the first time that Mr Austin has spoken candidly about her illness, revealing in November that she came close to organ failure. 

In a searingly honest radio interview, Mr Austin, 58, said the teenager dropped to five and a half stone after battling the illness.

Mr Austin and his wife, an A&E doctor, tried private health care but said there was 'force-feeding' and their daughter became 'even more depressed'. They eventually resorted to caring for her at home.

The journalist said the NHS offered 'the best emergency health care in the world' for physical problems but warned that help for mental health was underfunded.

Speaking on a mental health special of BBC Radio 4's The World At One last year, Mr Austin described how Maddy was struck with the illness while she was studying for her A-levels and she was pulled into a 'bleak, dark world of depression'.

Maddy, now 22, is now on the road to recovery from her illness

He said: 'She was basically shrinking away before our eyes. She was there, but she was gone and it all happened very quickly.

'We thought we were losing her so we tried to get help, but there wasn't really the help there.' 

He said 'within a period of four or five months' her weight dropped and she became 'very dangerously ill'. 

The family turned to private health care but 'that didn't work', he said. 

He said: 'It wasn't the kind of care we wanted for her. There was force-feeding going on. There was all sorts of stuff that was making her even more depressed.

'We pulled her out and basically looked after her ourselves. Had it not been for the fact that my wife is an A&E doctor I'm not sure what would have happened.

'She was getting close to organ failure.' 

Mr Austin said that the situation became more complicated when his daughter hit 18 because he was no longer able to see her medical notes.

He added: 'Things were getting pretty bleak.'

The presenter said the NHS offered the best emergency health care in the world for physical problems but warned that help for mental health is underfunded.

He continued: 'We are heading towards an epidemic in mental health and there are not the resources there to deal with it.'

The journalist said his daughter was now 'doing fine'.   

If you or someone you know is suffering from an eating disorder visit b-eat.org.uk for free help and advice