LOWRI TURNER: I’d respect stars a bit more if they admitted they have talent and stopped bleating that they suffer from Imposter Syndrome!

As the biggest celebrity con of our times, Imposter Syndrome — whereby ‘sufferers’ fear they are not worthy of their success and will be exposed for their inadequacy — is now the A-lister’s fashion accessory du jour.

Steve Coogan is the latest to have claimed it, telling Kirsty Young on her Young Again podcast that at the start of his career: ‘I felt a little bit like, ‘How did I get in here?’

Oh, pull the other one, Alan Partridge. Coogan is worth £19 million. His list of awards, including two Oscar nominations and numerous BAFTAs, is longer than the ingredients on a packet of ultra-processed doughnuts.

This is not a person who has cowered in the wings of life, afraid to step into the limelight. On the contrary, Coogan has occupied centre stage for three decades. As a 22-year-old stand-up, he was earning up to £1,000 a night.

Over my own career in TV, I’ve worked with a lot of comedians. If there is a breed less likely to display Uriah Heep-esque ‘ever so ‘umble’ modesty, it is them. Comics, in my experience, are narcissistic, ultra-competitive and would step over the prone body of their own grandmother for a headline spot.

Comedian, actor and screenwriter Steve Coogan (picture) told Kirsty Young on her Young Again podcast that at the start of his career he experienced something akin to Imposter Syndrome

This venal ambition may come from a place of secret pain — or it may be that they just really, really want the money, success and a nice car (Coogan has a penchant for Ferraris).

But the litany of uber-successful people coming out as sufferers of Imposter Syndrome — a term first coined in the 1970s by American researchers looking at high-achieving women — increases by the day.

They include Tom Hanks, Emma Watson, model Bella Hadid, former Facebook boss Sheryl Sandberg, former first lady Michelle Obama, Lady Gaga and Meghan Markle.

Meghan gave a keynote address for the One Young World Summit last year, in which she said of her previous appearance at the summit in 2014, when she was best known for her role on legal drama Suits: ‘I wondered if I was good enough to even be there.’

I’m afraid to say that I just don’t believe any of it. To shinny up the greasy pole of success, you need the twin crampons of steely determination and unshakeable self-belief.

Personally, I’m with Oprah, who declared earlier this year that she’s never felt Imposter Syndrome. She credits her father with imbuing her with a belief in her own abilities; and it was my parents who instilled a similar rod of iron in me.

It’s not that I feel I am better than other people, but that I was raised to think it’s a waste of time doubting yourself. Instead of spending hours navel-gazing as to why you may not be good enough, just get on and do it. The only failure is the failure to try.

There was only one occasion when I did wobble. I was about 12 and picked for the netball team at school. I am only five foot now, but was probably four feet nothing back then.

Actress Emma Watson has also explained that she suffers from Imposter Syndrome, saying that she feels ‘incredibly uncomfortable’ when she receives recognition for her acting 

I told my father that I didn’t think I was good enough to play against the taller girls. He looked me in the eye and announced: ‘Remember Kevin Keegan — jump higher.’ (Footballer Keegan was only 5ft’7in.)

And that’s what I’ve done ever since. When I was in newspapers in my 20s and a promotion was in the offing, I didn’t sit back and say: ‘Oh, no, not little old me.’ I applied for it.

In my 30s, working in TV, I didn’t pretend I was unworthy of being in front of the camera, I stepped forward and said: ‘Yes, I can do that.’ 

I hope I have taught my own children not to engage in cod humility but to be honest about their ambition — and then work blinking hard to back it up.

So why do so many stars belittle their own efforts? Why do they feel the need to tell us it was all a fluke or a lucky break? Maybe it’s an attempt to make those of us who drive cars other than Ferraris feel better. 

Those Imposter Syndrome phoney mea culpas are transmitting the message: ‘See, I’m just like you really (give or take a few million).’ In a world of social media ‘likes’, it is now not enough to be talented, focused and willing to work your socks off — you also need to be ‘humble’. 

‘Connecting’ with fans is an important marketing tool. Or, as my grandmother used to say: ‘No one likes a show-off.’

For female stars in particular, not being seen to have ‘got above yourself’ is key.

Singer and actress Lady Gaga is another celebrity who has opened up about struggling with Imposter Syndrome 

We are allowed to succeed, but only if we are also lovely, lovely people. It is inevitable that woke actress Emma Watson should use Imposter Syndrome to underplay her abilities. 

‘Now when I receive recognition for my acting, I feel incredibly uncomfortable. I tend to turn in on myself. I feel like an imposter,’ she says. Yawn. But it really is depressing when even the truly inspirational powerhouse that is Michelle Obama says the same thing.

‘I still have a little Imposter Syndrome,’ Michelle explained during her book tour, before adding: ‘I share that with you because we all have doubts in our abilities, about our power and what that power is.’

Do WE, really? Perhaps we all have the odd moment when we realise we have messed up and we might be discovered as slightly less capable than we hoped to appear.

But if you expect me to believe that most people, let alone stars, genuinely spend years fretting that they are not up to the job, then I’m afraid I just don’t believe you.

I do so wish Michelle Obama would say instead, ‘I’m fabulous and I know it’, no matter what those who might accuse her of boastfulness might say.

I also wish that women wouldn’t use self-doubt as a form of bonding. ‘I’m so rubbish at my job…’, ‘I look terrible without make-up…’, ‘I need to lose weight.’

The term ‘Imposter Syndrome’ was first coined in the 1970s by American researchers looking at high-achieving women (Stock Image)

I wish we would start owning our success; if instead of trumpeting our supposed failings and inadequacies, we women shared our strengths, then maybe others would see us as strong too, rather than taking our modesty as proof we’re not really up to the job after all.

There are, of course, those who display the opposite of Imposter Syndrome, whose gargantuan egos fail to recognise their own failings.

Nearly all of them are men, many are or were politicians (I’m looking at you Matt Hancock). We have all met plenty of people like that in the workplace. They are an absolute pain and can do a lot of damage in an organisation. But at least you can see them coming a mile off.

They aren’t pretending to be oh-so-luverly, while secretly gunning for your job. Because, as far as I’m concerned, only a fraud would claim Imposter Syndrome.