Suranne Jones – who is hosting Investigating Witch Trials today (Sunday, June 23) – once suffered a public breakdown following a family tragedy.
The actor, 45, opened up on the heartbreaking incident during an interview back in 2021.
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Investigating Witch Trails star Suranne Jones on ‘public breakdown’
Speaking on Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place podcast at the time, Suranne confessed that her father’s death had hit her hard.
“The pandemic hit, and my dad got sick. I got a call from my dad and he was grey and he couldn’t breathe and he said that he’d done a COVID test and it was positive,” she said.
“So my work – Gentleman Jack – sent him a medic and the medic said he needed to go to hospital,” she then continued.
“He was there for three months in ICU. He didn’t make it and then I got COVID myself at Christmas,” she then said.
Suranne on her ‘big breakdown’
The former Coronation Street star then continued.
“At that point, I felt like I wasn’t coping again so I had to go on medication,” she said.
“I think it’s important to say that I’m doing great and I’m still filming my job and professionally I’ve always been really strong and on point. But I’m on medication, and at some point, I’ll need to get off that,” she then added.
Suranne had previously been on medication following a “really big breakdown” when her mum died in 2016.
She took on a huge workload after her mum’s death, which led to her collapsing on stage in 2018 during a theatre run of Frozen (not the Disney musical).
Investigating Witch Trails star Suranne Jones talks about collapsing on stage
“What I did was go straight into work because I thought well, I’ll take a job because I want to show that I’m back in the game. So I took on a tough job – I don’t know to this day why I would choose a subject that was about a paedophile,” she said.
“I had a very public breakdown on stage in front of the audience and there was a build-up to it that I didn’t recognise,” she then continued.
She then went on to say that she’d taken on big projects as a form of “taking control”, as she hadn’t properly grieved the loss of her mother.
“So after the first Gentleman Jack I had a really big breakdown and I was offered medication, and I took it,” she said.
“And I didn’t want to. Kicking and screaming I took it, but I was so far gone by that point because I’d had the death of my mother and then I’d gone on to do two huge shows and my husband did not know how to help me,” she then said.
Read more: Suranne Jones to play UK prime minister in The Choice, a new political thriller from Netflix
Suranne Jones: Investigating Witch Trials airs tonight (Sunday, June 23) at 9pm on Channel 4.
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