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A post shared by Kelsey Merritt (@kelseymerritt) on Sep 15, 2018 at 6:17am PDT

MANILA – She may be at the top of her game now, yet Kelsey Merritt admitted that she suffered anxiety attacks in her journey to becoming a Victoria’s Secret model.

“This year, I put a lot of pressure on myself to the point that I would get anxiety attacks, something that I never had to deal before,” she said in an Instagram post on Thursday.

The Filipino-American model went on to thank her boyfriend, American swimmer Conor Dwyer, for always being there for her, especially during her anxiety attacks.

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A post shared by Kelsey Merritt (@kelseymerritt) on Nov 14, 2018 at 5:38pm PST

“I am so thankful for a lot of things that’s happened this year, but I’m really thankful for having Conor in my life,” she said.

“Conor was there for me, made sure I was okay, and was always just my shoulder to cry on,” she added. “We don’t really share a lot about our relationship to the public and I prefer to keep it private. But I just wanted to share with all of you what an amazing human being this guy is.”

Merritt recently made history as the first Filipino model in the Victoria’s Secret fashion show.