It is 9.30am, in Spokane, a town an hour outside Seattle, and a chirpy Gail Porter is talking about necrophilia.

We're discussing her determinedly lowbrow television offering, Dead Famous, "the celebrity psychic show" that is now on its third series. And somehow the conversation has turned into a discussion about sex.

"Dead Celebrity Love Island," the presenter hoots, as she wonders in what other ways the deceased can be brought back for our entertainment. When I suggest that the title might have some rather unpleasant connotations, she stops laughing. "Oh yes," she says, as realisation dawns. "Necrophilia Love Island."

Porter, the former pin-up from Portobello -most famous for having her naked body projected on to the Houses of Parliament -is in high spirits. It's something of a transformation for the 34-year-old presenter, who has recently undergone a very public battle with depression following the break-up of her marriage to the musician Dan Hipgrave.

Shortly after the couple divorced, Porter swallowed more than 30 sleeping pills at her north London home. She has since described the overdose as a cry for help and claims to be bemused by the media attention it received.

But the suicide attempt was just the latest in a series of mental-health related illnesses that Porter has suffered. Two years ago she revealed that she developed anorexia in her teens and twenties and that it has left her in need of medication for the rest of her life. Then she spoke about the crippling postnatal depression that followed the birth of her daughter, Honey.

Now she is anxious to put her sadness in the past, stressing that she is once again happy in her work and with her new boyfriend, James Lloyd, a cameraman.

"Life's like that," she says, almost matter-of-factly. "People look at movies and television and Hollywood stars -although I am not that famous -and they say 'she said she got depressed this year' and it gets blown out of proportion."

But surely it was difficult to go through something so personal in such a public way?

"I don't know. I haven't really found it that difficult. It gives you a good kick up the arse. I think, 'Am I being depressed? Why is everyone talking about it?' It gives you fight. I think, 'I'll show everyone'. I have had a good upbringing. My mum is very Scottish. She says, 'Get up dear, keep going'."

It is this attitude that is helping her through a second tough time during a year that she will no doubt be happy to forget. One morning three months ago, Porter woke up to find clumps of her hair had fallen out on her pillow.

As the hair loss speeded up and alopecia was diagnosed, she decided to confront what was happening to her. In September, with the launch party for her new television show approaching, she shaved off her remaining clumps of blonde hair, leaving a mohican-style central band that she dyed bright red. Then she stepped out and faced a barrage of press photographers.