Entertainment
Max George’s first mental health episode happened after The Wanted got number one: ‘I was breaking down’
Max George has revealed his first experience with mental health happened just after The Wanted went to number one after being overwhelmed with the global fame happening so quickly.
He has recently opened up about his struggles with depression, which he has had since 2010, admitting he used to lie about not having experienced mental health issues in the past as he was not ready to open up about it yet.
Max, 32, revealed to Hello! magazine: ‘It doesn’t matter what you do or who you are, you can literally have everything you want, but as success happened, mentally I was breaking down.
‘My first proper episode was when The Wanted went to number one. I’d achieved everything I had ever wanted but I couldn’t handle how it exploded so fast.
‘It is a question I have been asked before, if I’d had any problems in my life with mental illness and, to be honest, I have not told the truth. I always would say no.
‘It took me a hell of a long time to accept myself that I had these problems, and then to be able to speak to my family and close friends because it was so out of character for me.’
The Wanted, formed of Max, Jay McGuinness, Siva Kaneswaran, Tom Parker and Nathan Sykes, found fame in 2010, going straight to number one with their debut single All Time Low.
Max has previously revealed that he ended up having brain scans after his mental illness also displayed physical signs and he struggled to get out of bed or leave the house.
He added that his girlfriend, Stacey Giggs has helped him through difficult moments, explaining: ‘I remember I’d just had a really bad day with it, and she said, “What is wrong with you? What do I need to do?”
‘And I said “Just try to be normal around me. There is absolutely nothing you can do, unless I’m actually curled up in a ball on the floor and need you to pick me up.”’
Max was finally diagnosed with depression while starring in the TV series Glee in Los Angeles after The Wanted went on hiatus in 2014, when brain scans and other medical tests showed nothing was physically wrong with him but he was still struggling.
Appearing on the 2020 series of Strictly Come Dancing, Max also revealed that fellow contestant Caroline Quentin was the one who helped him to deal with the anxiety that came with the competition.
He explained: ‘She is an absolute sweetheart, I love her. I was so nervous on that show, it killed me, and she’d come in, sit me down on the floor, two metres apart, and talk me through it. It was dead nice of her.’
The full interview with Max George is in Hello! magazine, out now.
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