Fry’s pain hits him in the face when he sees TV clips

STEPHEN Fry has revealed that watching himself on TV is tough viewing because he can see his own unhappiness in his eyes.

The 59-year-old quiz host was candid about his past depression and suicidal thoughts and revealed that his young husband Elliot Spencer, 29, is key to keeping him afloat.

Explaining his despair in a video for mental health campaign Heads Together the comedian said: ‘Something had been building up inside me. Everything about my life just had come to its end, and I find it very, very difficult to look at myself. Having done the amount of TV and stuff I’ve done, there are times when I am sitting watching TV and my ugly mug will pop up.’

Talking to his psychiatrist, Dr William Shanahan, he said: ‘I can see in my eyes, I can see how unhappy I am, and I became so good at being this schoolmasterly, confident figure, who apparently was in charge of everything, including his own emotions, and because I can speak with reasonable fluency, people mistake that for being in control and it’s not.’

The Baftas host told how he has found a best friend in Spencer, who he married two years ago. ‘Talking was, really, a very strong part of the healing. And my best friend of all, my husband Elliott, he’s become expert at detecting when my moods are more than just being annoyed because I’ve locked myself out,’ he said.

Heads Together is spearheaded by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry.

Author: Andrei Harmsworth