Kit Harington says he felt suicidal while struggling with alcohol abuse and depression: 'I went through some pretty horrible stuff'
Former Game of Thrones star Kit Harington is opening up about his struggles with alcohol, admitting that he contemplated suicide during moments of depression. The British actor has been sober for two and a half years following a 2019 stay at a Connecticut treatment facility for “substances” and “behaviors," which he describes as “mainly alcohol.”
When asked by the Sunday Times Magazine if he felt suicidal during this time, Harington responded, “I will give you an answer to that question: The answer is yes."
He added, "Yes of course. I went through periods of real depression where I wanted to do all sorts of things.”
The star — who welcomed a baby boy this year with wife and former co-star Rose Leslie — also shared that he hopes his candor about his experience can “maybe help someone, somewhere."
"But I definitely don’t want to be seen as a martyr or special," he noted. "I’ve been through something, it’s my stuff. If it helps someone, that’s good.”
Harington sought treatment after going through "some pretty horrible stuff" around the time Game of Thrones, on which he played Jon Snow, was ending.
He told the Sunday Times Magazine that "things that have happened to me since Thrones ended, and that were happening during Thrones, were of a pretty traumatic nature and they did include alcohol." He admitted to the U.K. publication that he hit rock bottom during that time, but has a much more positive mindset since leaving rehab.
“You get to a place where you feel like you are a bad person, you feel like you are a shameful person," he explained. "And you feel that there’s no way out, that’s just who you are. And getting sober is the process of going, ‘No, I can change.’ One of my favorite things I learnt recently is that the expression ‘a leopard doesn’t change its spots’ is completely false: that a leopard actually does change its spots. I just think that’s the most beautiful thing. It really helped. That was something I kind of clung to; the idea that I could make this huge fundamental change in who I was and how I went about my life.”
Harington also addressed the strain his alcohol abuse put on his personal relationships, including his marriage to Leslie.
"You can imagine the stresses that it causes to those around you," he said, adding, “I will say about my addictions that I kept them very, very quiet and I was incredibly secretive and incredibly locked up with them. So they came as quite a surprise to the people around me. Which is quite often the case, I guess.”
He credited his actress wife with teaching him "kindness," and revealed that the couple enjoyed "dare I say romance" during lockdown at their country home, just months after he finished treatment. Harington — who shared that tobacco remains his only vice these days and "I’m trying to work out how to kick that" — also shared how his close friends reacted to his bad behavior.
“Like all of us, I have been an arsehole," he admitted. “I’ve been incredibly privileged to have some real f***ing pricks as friends who told me the truth. Someone said to me once, ‘When you’re sitting at a table and everyone around that table you’re paying, that’s when you know you’re in trouble.’”
If you or someone you know are experiencing suicidal thoughts, call 911, or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741.
