Kit Harington opens up about addiction issues and feeling suicidal after Game of Thrones

Most of us remember Kit Harington as the bold, righteous and mentally strong Game of Thrones protagonist Jon Snow. Little do we know about the struggles he was facing in real life, which he recently decided to share. It is surprising to note that even with all the riches and fame, one cannot guarantee one’s happiness. Bliss is a state of mind, and mental health is a concept often overlooked. People rarely talk about it, and those who come forward to share should be seen as brave instead of being shamed for it.

Harington talked to The Sunday Times in a recent interview, “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.”

“You get to a place where you feel like you are a bad person, you feel like you are a shameful person. And you feel that there’s no way out, that’s just who you are,” Harington recalled. “And getting sober is the process of going, ‘No, I can change.’”

“One of my favourite 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.”

When asked about feeling suicidal, he said, “I will give you an answer to that question: the answer is yes. Yes of course. I went through periods of real depression where I wanted to do all sorts of things.”

“I definitely don’t want to be seen as a martyr or special,” Harington went on to insist. “I’ve been through something, it’s my stuff. If it helps someone, that’s good.

“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.”

We would encourage anyone who identifies with the topics raised in this article to reach out. Organisations that can offer support include Samaritans on 116 123 (www.samaritans.org) or Mind on 0300 123 3393 (www.mind.org.uk). Readers in the US are encouraged to visit mentalhealth.gov or the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Game of Thrones boasted a host of intriguing and remarkable villains, that varied from the cunning Tywin Lannister to downright sadistic Ramsay Bolton. The actors did their job so perfectly, the viewers loved to hate them. One of the youngest and most memorable villains of the show was Joffrey Baratheon, played by actor Jack Gleeson. Jack Gleeson was in his early twenties when his character was killed off in Season 4 Episode 2, and fans recount it as one of the most satisfying death scenes on the show ever. Nonetheless, after the show, Gleeson decided to step away from the limelight, and we can understand why.

Gleeson is spending most of his time working in theatres. After a long day of rehearsals for the Druid production of Chekhov’s The Seagull, he spoke to Independent.ie for an interview. He recalled, “All I wanted to do growing up was to act in a big film or TV show and I achieved my utmost dream. I’m not a fit man by any stretch of the imagination. This is just rehearsals. I’m sure I’ll be absolutely wrecked after every single show, all the adrenaline pulsing through you.”

He added, “My part [Konstantin], he’s not on stage for the whole thing but it’s going to be in Coole Park [in Galway], outside, so even when you’re off stage, you still have to be present. You can’t go to the toilet or anything. But in terms of acting fitness or feeling rusty, yeah, definitely.”

Having played memorable roles in The Dark Knight and Game of Thrones, we can surely say Gleeson has accomplished everything he has wished for. What do you think? Tell us in the comments below!

Friends are the most beautiful asset one can behold in life. Sometimes they get closer to you than your own family. Game of Thrones stars are famous for maintaining great friendships behind-the-set. There are many BFF duos like Sophie Turner-Maisie Williams, Emilia Clarke-Nathalie Emmanuel, Gethin Anthony-Gwendoline Christie to name but a few. Sometimes we lose touch with our friends, and it often seems like they have drifted away. Actress Maisie Williams, however, is making sure there’s no such issue with her BFF Sophie Turner.

Speaking on the Table Manners podcast, she said: “She played my sister so we were like sisters. We got the role at the same time and we grew up on the show together and it was so amazing to have another person who was going through it at the same time because I think I just would have, it would have been too much otherwise.”

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“I just got very anxious in public settings all the time. Now, I feel like I’ve had a big break from it and I’m much better with public-facing. My whole adolescence I felt I couldn’t hang out with my friends. I wasn’t at school. Now all of a sudden everyone in the whole world was doing the same thing. It felt really nice. I’ve loved lockdown. There was no FOMO.”

“Being a teenager is hard, then I was also on this show. I never knew who I was but I’ve come out the other side now. I’m not that different to the girl I was trying to be – but I was having a crisis,” she added.

Do you think Maisie and Sophie ever had a feud to begin with? Let us know in the comments below!

Game of Thrones protagonist Jon Snow remains one of the greatest roles actor Kit Harington has ever played. His name is synonymous with the show’s character, who has now turned into a pop culture icon. However, unlike his character who ‘knows nothing’, Kit seems to have learnt a lot about fatherhood ever since he had a baby with his wife Rose Leslie (Ygritte). He is thankful to Game of Thrones, as his little family is a direct result of his meet with Leslie on the show.

Kit told SiriusXM in The Jess Cagle Show, “I think that, you know, the old expression of a good war or a bad war… I had a good pandemic.”

“I say that because, you know, when you’re in a relationship or a marriage where you both act, you can tend to just have a lot of time away from each other and what we were gifted with this was forced time together. And because of that, we ended up having a baby. That’s the major thing that came out of the pandemic for me was becoming a father.”

“So I had a quite profound and amazing experience during this last year and a half. And yeah, of course it was anxiety-inducing and strange and odd and I didn’t see my friends and family, but on the whole, my friends and family are all healthy, I’m now a father. On the whole I had a very lucky experience over the past year and a half. I know other who haven’t.”

“I think we’re all thanking our lucky stars for that one. Met my wife, my child is a direct result of ‘Game of Thrones’. I still have very, very good friends from that show. It did nothing but wonders for me.”

Did the pandemic benefit you in any way? Tell us in the comments below!

 

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