In January 2018, there was an incident involving Kit Harington at a bar in New York. He was getting aggro over a game of pool and was eventually thrown out. Kit eventually came back to pay the tab and leave a generous tip. No drama after that and then in June, he and Rose Leslie got married in Scotland. Then, in November, nude photos of someone who resembled him with a Russian model were posted online. Whoever it was in the pictures was passed out. Kit’s reps denied he was the one in the pictures and the story went away pretty quickly.
The story since has been the end of Game of Thrones. We talked about Kit on Show Your Work back in March after he covered Variety ahead of the GoT Season 8 premiere and hosting Saturday Night Live. Kit was pretty candid about his triumphs and his struggles over the last decade, being one of the central characters on the biggest show on television. He talked about anxiety, about the stress, about going to therapy to process all the changes in his life, all the pressure he was under.
Yesterday Page Six broke the story that Kit’s been in rehab with a source saying that:
“The end of ‘GoT’ really hit Kit hard …
“He realized ‘this is it — this is the end’, it was something they had all worked so hard on for so many years. He had a moment of, what next?
“He’s in the clinic predominantly for stress and exhaustion and also alcohol.
“His wife Rose is being extremely supportive. Everyone close to him really wanted him to get some rest. Right now, he just needs peace and quiet.”
Kit's last official public appearance was in Belfast for the Game of Thrones premiere the second week of April. According to Page Six, he checked into rehab shortly after. His rep has released a statement that reads:
“Kit has decided to utilize this break in his schedule as an opportunity to spend some time at a wellness retreat to work on some personal issues.”
Getting help is a good thing. Hopefully he gets all the help he needs. Getting help conveniently during “a break in his schedule” though…
I mean there’s enough to worry about, and that’s just another thing. Because it makes it sound like, you know, this was a convenient time for him to get help when, as we all know, ideally, you get help when you need the help, not when it’s convenient, not when there’s a gap in the schedule. The underlying message here seems to be a reassurance – hey, it’s all good, he wasn’t committed to anything else at the time, so no problem, and soon enough he’ll be back on schedule, on time!
And this, also, is what mental health advocates have been working on as we all evolve our perspectives about mental wellness: that it’s a priority, and that it should be priority, not just something you work on in your spare time, because, ultimately, you want mental health and wellness for the people you care about and the people you work with. Everyone benefits. It’s a tweak in thinking, and we’re not there yet, and it’s certainly something I struggle with all the time, but it’s tweak that can make a big difference in addressing shame and promoting awareness.
