Actor Rose Leslie has opened up about her husband Kit Harington’s past alcohol abuse issues, saying in a new interview that he’d be “in a very different headspace right now” without rehab.
“For Kit, being an addict, it’s very important for him to recognize himself as such,” Leslie, who starred in “Game of Thrones” with Harington, told Harper’s Bazaar UK in an interview published online Thursday.
“The AA community has provided such a loving space for him to feel heard, to make sure he’s not alone,” she continued. “But if it weren’t for rehab, he would be in a very different headspace right now.”
Harington and Leslie married in 2018. He sought treatment in 2019 following the end of “Game of Thrones,” the HBO fantasy drama that propelled them both to worldwide fame. The couple welcomed their first child, a boy, last year.
In an interview last summer with The Sunday Times about his treatment, Harington recalled going “through some pretty horrible stuff” after the conclusion of the hit show.
“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,” he said. “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.’”
Now three years on, Leslie told Harper’s Bazaar UK that she was “doing well,” but it wasn’t on her to police her husband.
“I’ve learnt a lot about addiction and it’s something Kit is forever going to be aware of, but it’s on him whether he chooses to drink again,” she said. “No amount of nannying is going to be able to stop him from doing what he decides to do ... I don’t choose to put that pressure on myself. The responsibility of his behavior is on him. It’s not on me to guard him from it.”
Need help with substance use disorder or mental health issues? In the U.S., call 800-662-HELP (4357) for the SAMHSA National Helpline.