Jamie Dornan has revealed he battled depression and turned to alcohol after the tragic deaths of his mother and four friends in the space of one year.
The Fall actor, 36, was just 16 when his mother Lorna died from pancreatic cancer in 1998, with the star enduring further tragedy when four of his friends died in a car crash one year later.
Speaking to Jay Rayner on his podcast, Out To Lunch With.., the Fifty Shades of Grey star admitted he is ‘still dealing with both’ tragedies two decades later.
Pain: Jamie Dornan has revealed he battled depression and turned to alcohol after the tragic deaths of his mother and four friends in the space of one year
Pain: Jamie Dornan has revealed he battled depression and turned to alcohol after the tragic deaths of his mother and four friends in the space of one year
He said: ‘Yeah my mum died when I was 16 that was obviously a life-altering, insane, horrendous thing to happen. Then four of my mates killed themselves in a car crash when I was 17.
‘I had a very rough couple of years that I guess I’m still dealing with both of [those] things today, every day.’
Jamie said that he had turned to alcohol to deal with the heartbreak he had suffered.
He continued: ‘But I guess they were very acute still then, and I drank a lot of everything but I had this summer where I’d go out a lot, drink, not really achieve anything.’
The star said he hadn’t realised he was dealing with depression until it was pointed out in a job interview.
He said: ‘I had a summer, I dropped out of university and I was doing a marketing degree and no interest in any aspect of marketing, and I thought “Well f**k this, I’m going to leave.”‘
‘I remember having this idea that I wanted to change and I knew I wasn’t on the right path and I needed to do something else, and I got into an interview once and I was explaining what I got up to that summer, and the interviewer goes “So you’re depressed” and I was like “Oh s**t yeah”.’
‘I’d never seen it that way but I must have been depressed.’
Jamie has previously spoken about the pain of losing his beloved mother to pancreatic cancer, as he showed his support for the charity NIPanC, set up to help those suffering from the disease.
