BACK FROM THE BRINK
KIT HARINGTON HAS BRAVELY OPENED UP ON HIS TRAUMATIC BATTLE WITH ADDICTION
After tying the knot with long-time partner Rose Leslie in 2018 and then filming the last season of Game of Thrones, Kit Harington should have been on a personal high. Instead, the 34-year-old has admitted it was during these months that he experienced a period of intense emotional and physical exhaustion – so dark, at times, that he considered taking his own life.
“I went through some pretty horrible stuff,” the actor recently explained to The Sunday Times magazine. “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.”
By May 2019, the star had checked into a luxe Connecticut rehab to be treated for stress and alcohol issues – shortly after he was booted from a New York City bar for his behaviour. “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,” he said of hitting rock bottom. “And getting sober is the process of going, ‘No, I can change.’”
While Harington and Leslie, also 34, have been together for close to a decade, the actor hinted that he kept his demons hidden from those closest to him. “I will say about my addictions that
|I kept them very, very quiet and I was incredibly secretive and incredibly locked up with them,” he said during the candid chat. “So they came as quite a surprise to the people around me.”
Now, two and a half years sober, Harington says he finally feels settled. He and Leslie welcomed a baby boy – whose name they have chosen to keep private – earlier this year. “Life is wonderful,” he shared. “I have a child and my relationship is brilliant … I’m a very, very happy, content, sober man.”
• By Sara Tapia If you or someone you know needs help, contact Lifeline on 131114