Kit Harington Says Mental Health Issues Were ‘Directly Due’ to Game of Thrones

Kit Harington revealed his mental health was affected so intensely from filming “Game of Thrones” that he needed a year off of acting.

“I went through some mental health difficulties after ‘Thrones’ — and during the end of ‘Thrones’ to be honest — and I think it was directly to do with the nature of the show and what I’ve been doing for years,” the actor said recently on SiriusXM’s “The Jess Cagle Show.”

Harington became a household name after starring on the HBO fantasy drama for eight seasons as Jon Snow. The month “Game of Thrones” ended, in May 2019, it was reported the star checked himself into a mental health and wellness facility to seek help with “stress and exhaustion and also alcohol.”

“I think I took a sort of break after ‘Thrones’ where I said, ‘I don’t want to work for a year. I want to really kind of concentrate on myself,’” he explained. “I’m really happy I did that.”

However, Harington was all set to jump back into his career after the break when the pandemic hit.

“Coming back to work and deciding what to take and what to choose, you know, you couldn’t predict the pandemic, so just when I was wanting to come back to work, the pandemic hit, so I was like, ‘Ugh, for God’s sake.’”

But the time in quarantine proved quite fruitful for him and his wife Rose Leslie, as they welcomed a son earlier this year.

“What we were gifted with this was forced time together. And because of that, we ended up having a baby,” he explained. “That’s the major thing that came out of the pandemic for me was becoming a father. I had a quite profound and amazing experience during this last year and a half.”