Game of Thrones star, Kit Harington talks about depression, feeling suicidal and alcohol abuse

Kit Harington, one of the stars of hit HBO show, Game of Thrones, has opened up about his alcohol struggles and dealing with depression.

The actor, who played Jon Snow on the show, also added that he had been completely sober for over 2 years. Back in 2019, he checked himself into rehab to deal with his issues.

During an interview with the Sunday Times, he said,

“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. 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.”

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“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 was also asked about feeling suicidal during this period. 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. 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.”