Roman Kemp has opened up about his worst struggles with depression.
With his mum Shirlie Holliman firmly at his side, the 28-year-old radio star recalled a time in 2019 when his thoughts ran away with themselves.
The Capital FM presenter was so lost at the time he couldn’t seem to see another way to escape his pain and instead he contemplated taking his own life.
Having lost his best friend and co-star Joe Lyons at age 31, who tragically took his own life at the beginning of the year, Roman’s family feared that he would end up on a downward spiral again.
The I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! star had been on a rollercoaster of emotions in recent months, not only dealing with the grief of losing his close pal but trying to better understand depression as a whole.
(Image: BBC/Phil Sharp)
Depression has haunted Roman throughout his life – with the tell-tale signs showing up when he was just a teen.
In a candid interview with The Sun, his pop-star mum, 59, explained she’d first noticed that Roman had “started staying in his bedroom a lot” and had the feeling as though she’d lost her fun-loving child in the process.
After he’d opened up to the family doctor about what was going on – which was waking up each day and feeling as though “someone had given him terrible news, only they hadn’t” – he was diagnosed with clinical depression.
(Image: ITV)
This weighed heavy on his mum until she eventually came to the realisation his condition was “chemical” and not her fault.
Roman, who’s dad is Spandau Ballet star Martin Kemp, has always had a great relationship with his parents and it’s easy to see their close bond – especially on Celebrity Gogglebox.
The last 15 months have proved to be incredibly difficult for Roman who lost his best friend who was better known as Producer-man Joe on Capital FM to suicide.
Since Joe’s death, Roman has done a lot of self-reflection and campaigning to better understand depression which has led to resurfacing memories of his own demons from the past.
Looking back at his worst moments with the illness, he casted his mind back to 2019 explaining to the same publication: “All these pressures just came on top of me. I remember being in my bedroom not knowing what to do. That day, I thought about going to the train station and jumping in front of a train.
(Image: ITV)
“When I’m in that bad bit, I can’t get out of it and there’s nothing I can do to help the situation. You feel like someone is sentencing you to 30 years in prison and, at that point, you just think: ‘I don’t want to be here any more.’
“It’s really hard to pull yourself out of it. And that particular time, I’d just had a lot of stress. It was bad. It’s something that a lot of lads go through, so it’s important to have that one person you can speak to.”
Over the past few months, Roman has fought hard to raise awareness asking his fans to check in twice on chums they may be worried about.
The idea behind double checking is that someone in a depressive mindset might initially refuse any initial help but if asked twice, they could take up that support.
For emotional support you can call the Samaritans 24-hour helpline on 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org, visit a Samaritans branch in person or go to the Samaritans website.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
