Vanessa Feltz still hears 'dead parent's voice' as she admits to suffering from imposter syndrome

Vanessa Feltz can still hear the critical voice of her late mother nearly three decades on after her she sadly passed away from endometrial cancer, in 1997.

The former host appeared on alongside and , chatting about her new tell-all book - Vanessa Bares All. The television personality had toyed long and hard with writing another publication but revealed there had been a "bidding war" for her to do so.

Lifting the lid on her life, all while casting her mind back to her adolescence, the ex host didn't exactly relay fond childhood memories as she summed up her relationship with her parents Valerie and Norman - describing her mother and father as "critical".

The reality star confessed to the two hosts that she'd "never felt good enough" and was always "trying so hard to impress" her parents but believed she could "never be the person they wanted her to be."

She confessed: "I could never quite get it right with my parents, they wanted me to be a totally different person than the person I am. They definitely wanted the best for me but much like parents today they didn't have that unconditional love for the child that they had."

Elaborating further on her relationship with her mother, Vanessa cast her mind back to her wedding day to ex-husband Michael Kurer, saying she "only married because that's what her parents wanted her to do".

Speaking about the big day, she can just remember her mum Valerie giving her a dressing down. "Even on my wedding day all you can hear my mother say on my wedding video is 'Oh Vanessa be quiet'," she added: "She wanted a quieter bride and that just wasn't me."

Vanessa was sent to Trinity College, Cambridge, where she graduated with a first class honours degree. Despite her educational achievements, her parents were still unsatisfied, having expected her to find an "eligible husband" during her time there.

The TV star recalled her dad being displeased that she'd returned to their home unmarried. He told her: "'Darling you have delighted us long enough,' meaning he wanted me out of the house.

"It sounds like I am joking but actually I'm not joking and at the time it was an enormous burden," shrieked the television star.

Simon asked: "Do you still carry it then?" Vanessa retorted: "The burden of never fulfilling your parents' expectations, oh yes, of course I do."

It was at this point she opened up about hearing the voice of her mother Valerie: "My mother's been dead, god love her, I've missed her for every minute of the day for 29 years, but I can hear the voice, the critical voice in my head.

"Lots of people whose parents have passed away can have a daily conversation with their parents who are now no longer with us and it's always the same critical voice, 'What are you wearing that for?' and 'What do you look like that for?', 'That wasn't funny, why did you say that?', that type of thing."

Vanessa struggled to silence her mum's voice in her head but felt reassured she wasn't the only one struggling with the same thing: "It's very hard to say to your dead parents shh, shhh, you know come on I don't need that voice but I was very reassured to hear that even Michelle Obama has imposter syndrome as that made me feel so much better."

Sunday Brunch airs each Sunday on Channel 4 from 09:30am.