13 July 2023 , 12:18
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Fifty Shades of Grey author E.L. James has revealed she is therapy despite her huge success.
The 60-year-old, whose real name is Erika Mitchell, is thought to be worth over £100 million after penning the erotic Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy.
Her books, including follow ups Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed, have sold more than 165 million copies around the globe and been translated into over 50 languages.
While the Fifty Shades films starring Jamie Dornan as Christian Grey and Dakota Johnson as Anastasia Steele netted $1 billion (£768,422,000.00) at the box office.
Even though she is one of the most successful authors that ever lived, James has admitted she still suffers from imposter syndrome and shared she is currently in therapy to try and shift her self-doubt.
Housebound ex-serviceman enjoys special window visit from physio's horse
The Fifty Shades books and movies have made creator E.L. James millions (REX/Shutterstock)Describing herself as being “like a rabbit in the headlights”, James said the success of Fifty Shades “still confounds me”.
“I didn’t expect such a furore and didn’t deal with it well. I couldn’t sleep and was anxious, especially around the time of the movies. All I’d done was sit down and write something I’d have wanted to read, an erotic and fun romance,” she confessed in a new interview with The Times.
“I have imposter syndrome and knowing I’ve sold 165 million books doesn’t make it easier. I find it depressing that I can’t shift the self-doubt so I’m in therapy now.
“I’ve been called courageous, but I’m actually quite a coward. I’m a lot braver in my fiction than in real life.”
James is married to Northern Irish novelist and screenwriter Niall Leonard, who writes comedies, thrillers and historical dramas for TV including Ballykissangel, Hornblower, Monarch of the Glen and Wire In The Blood.
He was heavily involved in the screenwriting for the Fifty Shades films and has penned his own novels such as the Crusher trilogy and A Heart Within The Beast: A Retelling of Dante’s Inferno, which he wrote during lockdown.
E. L. James with her screenwriter and author husband Niall Leonard (Getty Images)
Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan brought Fifty Shades to life on the big screen (AFP/Getty Images)The couple married in 1987 and have two grown up sons together. They are thought to live in a six bedroom, six bathroom house in west London.
Although she is a roaring success, modest James says her husband Niall is “the real writer in our family”.
Her comments come shortly after the release of her new book The Missus, a follow-up to the Sunday Times bestseller, The Mister.
The “passionate and thrilling love story” centres around the relationship between a British Lord and a sex-trafficking Albanian cleaner and was released on June 20.
'My husband was having an affair for three-and-a-half years and I forgave him'
But with sex not as forthcoming in her most recent books, James said she feared they would never be published.
She revealed it was these books she had been trying to write since 2009 – before her first taste of Fifty Shades success in 2011.
And it is rumoured The Mister which sold 52,000 copies in its first week, is being lined up next for the big screen.