A distressing true story about Victoria Coren Mitchell’s fear of flying has been doing the rounds on social media – and it’s no wonder everyone feels uneasy after reading it.
The Only Connect star and professional poker player, 53, suffers from aviophobia, and although this is something she has discussed in the past, the upsetting tale around it has made its way online again.
In an extreme case of a nightmare come to life, a post circulating on Instagram reads: ‘In 2000, professional poker player Victoria Coren was seeing a therapist to help overcome her fear of flying.
‘Her therapist when died in a plane crash, so now she chooses to travel only by rail or boat.’
The post, shared on major meme page Fruitsnacks, also includes a chilling response from an X user, saying: ‘Insane [because] I know he thought of her when the plane was going down.’
In 2012, Coren Mitchell, who married Peep Show icon David Mitchell that same year (long after the unpleasant event occurred) spoke openly about the whole ordeal.
Writing in the Evening Standard, Coren Mitchell said: ‘My approach to aircraft technology is that of an ill-travelled New Guinea tribesman: “Big metal bird not stay in sky. Me stay on ground.” I was once only mildly afraid, until I went for treatment with a fear-of-flying counsellor.
‘Then he died in a plane crash. I’m not kidding.’
There’s the kicker…
Somewhat stating the obvious, she went on: ‘I wouldn’t say the whole experience allayed my suspicions.
‘Since then, I have tried everything from hypnotherapy to good old-fashioned train travel, so I’m quite prepared to have a go at a book which might prove reassuring.’
She admitted that ‘those of us who fear flying tend not to be logical people,’, adding: ‘We do not operate by statistics, so don’t come to us with your “millions-to-one”. When we board a plane, it will either crash or it will not.’
Much of the online reaction to Coren Mitchell’s unfortunate backstory has been of abject horror, but also a fair amount of quoting Alanis Morrisette’s iconic 1990s anthem Ironic. Because of course.
‘Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think?’ joked one fan on Instagram, quoting the lyrics, with another adding: ‘And as the plane crashed down he thought, “well isn’t that nice…”’
Others commented that ‘the next year didn’t help either’, referring to the 9/11 tragedy of 2001, where flights were hijacked and crashed into the World Trade Center in New York.
And others just couldn’t believe she only travels by rail or boat.
‘What, not even a car?’
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