Kit Harington has admitted he feels ‘lucky’ to have kicked his alcohol addiction before having children.
The Games Of Thrones star, 37, – who shares two children with wife and former co-star Rose Leslie – checked into a rehab facility in the U.S. to be treated for stress and alcohol use back in 2019.
Speaking in a candid interview with GQ, Kit Harington who played Jon Snow in the HBO drama – told how in the midst of his drinking, he ‘hated himself’ and struggled to feel pride in any of his achievements.
But after overcoming his demons and starting a family, Kit Harington feels like ‘an entirely different person’.
Discussing his sobriety journey, Kit explained: ‘I was so lucky I got sober before having kids… because at one time it felt physically and emotionally impossible for me not to drink again.’
He continued: ‘Before getting sober, I would stare in the mirror and call myself a c**t. I’d hate myself. I would literally despise myself and not be proud of anything I’d done. I couldn’t be proud. So the fact that I am proud of getting sober is in and of itself a mark of being an entirely different person.’
He added that before getting sober, his relationship with alcohol felt like a ‘huge monkey’ on his back which ‘weighed me down’, with the star noting that now being able to be proud of himself is a ‘relatively new prospect’.
Despite his new outlook on life, the actor admitted that he couldn’t guarantee he wouldn’t fall off the wagon, adding that he may well have a ‘messy, chaotic relapse’.
Kit and wife Rose, 37, tied the knot in Scotland back in 2018 and they share a three-year-old son and a daughter who they welcomed in June 2023.
The TV star went on to say how being a parent has made him become less ‘self-centered’ and everything in life shifts focus towards them.
He shared: ‘I say this with love for myself – I’m quite self-centred. I think I’m a generous person and a loving person [too]. But with kids, you just don’t get to be self-centred. They strip you of it.
And that’s an amazing gift. [Kids] are ultimately completely self-centred. They don’t think about anyone else but themselves.’
It comes after Kit revealed he is ‘missing’ his family as he attended the season three premiere of his hit HBO series Industry in New York last week.
Kit told how he recently missed his baby girl ‘taking her first steps’ while he was away filming.
The actor told Extra: ‘My little girl just took her first steps the other day. I’m doing a play in London and I’m missing them a lot.
‘I have a boy and a girl now. I couldn’t be more blessed.
‘They are the most beautiful children in every single way. They are just gorgeous.’
Earlier this year, Kit said he and Rose had been more ‘practical’ with her second pregnancy, whereas they took a more ‘romantic’ view of parenthood when they were expecting their son.
He told Entertainment Tonight: ‘We’re really practical about it at the moment. And actually, almost too practical.
‘With our first child there was so, sort of romantic, for one of a better word, and this other one we’re like, ‘Right, okay, let’s get.’
‘We know how efficient we have to be. Let’s get down to parenting.
‘My mum says that she never remembers us being little kids or the early parenting much, because you’re so present in it. And I think that’s what kids allow you to be, is incredibly present in the moment, ’cause you’ve got no choice.’