The Wanted’s Max George has appeared on Good Morning Britain where he spoke about his struggle with depression, the first TV interview in which he has done so.
“When The Wanted first took off, that’s when I started noticing changes. It was more physical at the start – rashes and what looked like acne on my back, I’d never had that before and it was weird to be getting it at the age I was at. So I was having treatment for that. And then I started to feel that I wasn’t enjoying the stuff that I loved the most.”
Speaking to Alistair Campbell and Susanna Reid to mark Mental Health Awareness Week, Max said the signs of depression began in the early days of being in The Wanted.
“It was a weird position to be in, because I’d just started to achieve everything I wanted and being on stage in front of thousands of people – that was the best feeling I’d ever had, but at the same time, it was that that was causing me to feel the way I was feeling.”
Alistair asked Max if he’d spoken to his band members about how he was feeling and he said: “No, I didn’t raise it. I probably just went out and drank and tried to forget about it. It got better for a while actually. The first year of The Wanted was quite bad and straight after The Wanted was probably the worst, just after I finished Glee.”
“That’s when the physical side got the worse. I woke up one morning and felt my jaw had locked up. As soon as I went to get up, I was sick and I thought I had a bug. That went on for a week, then a month and it was like, ‘There’s something seriously wrong now.'”
Max then explained that after opening up to people, he started to feel better. He said: “One morning, I was just at my Dad’s house and I woke up and I was like, ‘I feel alright today.’ And I’ve been fine since.”
“Talking about it now, it makes me feel a little bit uncomfortable and nervous because it’s just not something I thought I’d do. But talking does help me and it has done since day one, but the biggest thing from me about talking about it is the response I get from other people.”
On his bandmate Tom Parker, who was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour, Max said:
“I spoke to him a couple of days ago and he couldn’t have been better. He FaceTimed me last week and he was sat in the garden, having a beer in the sun. His spirits are really high. He’s looking forward to doing music. He’s just top.”
Good Morning Britain, weekdays on ITV from 6am and also on the ITV Hub.
