Kit Harington opened up about overcoming alcoholism and mental health issues before welcoming his now six-month-old son with his wife and former co-star Rose Leslie.
In a recent interview, the Game of Thrones actor revealed his experiences with a dark period in life after his eight-season role as Jon Snow came to an end in 2019.
“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,” Harington told the Sunday Times.
“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,’” Harington explained.
“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,” Harington added. 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.”
During that time, he also dealt with thoughts of suicide.
“I went through periods of real depression where I wanted to do all sorts of things,” he revealed. “But 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.”
Harington, who has now been sober for over two years, first entered a rehab facility in Connecticut in 2019 to deal with “substances” and “behaviors,” which he described as “mainly alcohol,” around the time the final episode of Game of Thrones was airing. The actor has previously opened up about seeking therapy in the past for learning how to cope with fame after the show’s explosive popularity.
The British actor also discussed the burden his battle with sobriety caused in his personal relationships as well as his marriage.
“You can imagine the stresses that it causes to those around you,” he said.
“I will say about my addictions that I kept them very, very quiet and I was incredibly secretive and incredibly locked up with them,” Harington revealed. “So they came as quite a surprise to the people around me. Which is quite often the case, I guess.”
Harington credited the pandemic for allowing him to put the brakes on his acting career creating more time for him and his wife which eventually led to growing his family. The actor insists he is currently, “a very very happy, content, sober man.”
The new father revealed the obstacles of raising a newborn before getting accustomed to fatherhood.
“There’s something about having a child that is the most physically draining thing,” he remarked. “My hat goes off to any single parent. Any single parent, you’re a f—ing genius. I don’t know how you do it. Because it’s more exhausting than everything I did on Thrones.”
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