Telly star Emily Atack has revealed she tried to take her own life after splitting with an ex love.
The I’m A Celebrity runner-up bravely told how she downed vodka then self-harmed in a desperate cry for help.
The actress’s revelation came after Little Mix singer Jesy Nelson admitted a suicide attempt when she was plagued by internet trolls.
Emily, 29, who is speaking out in the Sunday People to raise mental health awareness, said: “I’ll never forgive myself for harming my body in that way.
“I didn’t want to die. I just felt so out of control.”
Inbetweeners actress Emily was 15 when she cut her wrists after splitting from a boyfriend who had accused her of being a “psycho”.
She said: “I would do drastic things in order to make him get back with me.
“I drank a bottle of vodka and cut my wrists – a cry for help, a cry for attention.
“I was spiralling. I was too young to cope with my breaking heart and cloudy drunk head.”
Fortunately Emily was saved by medics.
“I woke up with massive bandages on my wrists and had to hide them from my family,” she said.
The actress’s mum Kate Robbins, 61 – herself an actress, singer and comedian – was horrified, Emily said.
“My mum would beg me to open up and speak to her but I just couldn’t. She started to see cuts on my arms and it broke her heart. I’ll never forgive myself for harming my body in that way, and to this day I still have no idea why I did that.
“I didn’t want to die. I just felt so out of control of everything and it was almost like a ‘f*** you to everyone, cos I can do this if I want!’ sort of thing.
“A rebellion, I guess. I saw it like I had no other choice.”
Emily, who won the hearts of the nation on last year’s I’m A Celebrity, admitted that she went off the rails after the teen love split.
In her new book she says: “I was about 15 by this point. I’d lost a lot of weight and I was constantly in trouble at school.
“Bunking school to avoid it because of the bullying, and hanging around with older people doing older things.
“I was having house parties the second my parents were away, hundreds of people in the house, every single room occupied with people, smoke, girls with their boobs out, people puking, the lot.
“The house was trashed every weekend and neighbours were starting to despise us.”
Emily backed Jesy Nelson, 28, because she too has suffered online abuse with people commenting on her weight.
Emily was also a target for school bullies. She added: “They’d spread awful rumours about me, stick pictures of me around all the villages with my mobile number on it.”
Emily turned her life around, launching an acting career.
She was in an episode of ITV’s Heartbeat before landing her breakthrough role as sixth-former Charlotte Hinchcliffe in the cult E4 comedy The Inbetweeners.
Stints followed on shows like Dancing on Ice and Celebrity Juice before her Celeb jungle stint made her household name.
- Emily’s book Are We There Yet?: To Indignity...And Beyond! is out now.
The Samaritans is available 24/7 if you need to talk. You can contact them for free by calling 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org or head to the website to find your nearest branch. You matter.
