Actor Tony Slattery’s Brutal Confession About Bipolar Disorder and Mental Health Battle Will Break Your Heart – “in a pool of despair and mania”

Tony Slattery bid adieu to the world just when there was just a sliver of hope that it might finally get him back. Some people get to do what they love until the end of their life while others don’t. Then, there are some whose backgrounds are such that one begins to wonder how they even did what they did for so many years without losing it. Slattery was certainly one of these people.

It is no secret that the world beyond the glitz and glamour of fame is far too disturbing for those who have never seen it. Often, the reality behind the closed doors is enough to send shivers down one’s spine. Slattery was a celebrity whose life was anything but easy. His struggles with mental health were a huge part of how it turned out.

Tony Slattery had a long battle with mental health and addiction issues

Tony Slattery’s first role on television was as a regular performer on Chris Tarrant’s 1983 late-night comedy show Saturday Stayback. 5 years later, he appeared in the first series of the comedy improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway? He quickly gained recognition on the show and became a regular performer.

From the early 1980s to the mid-1990s, the University of Cambridge alum worked tirelessly. From appearances in comedy shows to starring as a dramatic actor in movies like The Crying Game, Peter’s Friends, To Die For, and a couple of other gigs, he seemed to have been working with no breaks whatsoever.

His career suffered a huge setback due to personal issues at this point and he retreated to a huge extent. Every now and then, he would star in a new comedy show, a game show, or even a film, but no one really knew what happened to him. That changed when the journalist Hadley Freeman interviewed him (via The Guardian). The things Slattery revealed about himself in the interview were beyond heartbreaking.

Towards the end of the 13 years of his nonstop working streak, he had a diet of two bottles of vodka and 10g of cocaine. He described the time as

Terrible isolationism and an almost comatose state, and then terrible agitation, constant pacing, sitting inside with thoughts whirling round and round.

The media portrayed this as substance abuse, but it was more than that. He was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which explained the duality of the life he led. The disorder had an impact on his personal as well as professional life, but for the longest time, he was unaware of it.

Tony Slattery was s*xually assaulted as a child

Slattery spoke about his mental health issues several times throughout his life, although he preferred keeping the details of his personal life to himself. In a 2006 BBC Two programme, The Secret Life Of The Manic Depressive, he said of his bipolar disorder (via Daily Mail):

I rented a huge warehouse by the River Thames. I just stayed in there on my own, didn’t open the mail or answer the phone for months and months and months. I was just in a pool of despair and mania.

Even so, there were parts of his life that the public did not know about until that interview with Freeman. When the interviewer asked him, where did the angry demeanor that he was often accused of in the ’90s came from, the answer was shocking.

I have a feeling that what might have been a contributing factor is something that happened when I was very young. Not to do with family. A priest. When I was about eight.

Not a single person, including Slattery’s parents, was aware of this. The only person who knew was his partner of nearly four decades, actor Mark Michael Hutchinson. Per another The Guardian interview, he discussed the abuse in more detail in the 2020 BBC documentary titled What’s the Matter With Tony Slattery? According to BBC, the Irish star passed away at the age of 65 due to a heart attack. He is only survived by his longtime partner, Mark Michael Hutchinson.