Game Of Thrones' Sophie Turner ‘Taking A Break’ From Acting After Years Of Battling Mental Health Issues

17 April 2019, 11:23

Sophie Turner is taking some time out of acting to focus on herself and her mental health after battling depression and thoughts of suicide.

Sophie Turner has given a candid interview about how criticism and growing up in the spotlight as Sansa Stark on Game of Thrones took its toll on her mental health from the age of 14 years old.

The actress – who is engaged to Joe Jonas – spoke to Dr. Phil on his podcast, revealing the constant stream of comments about her appearance and her acting skills had a severe effect on her mentality, leading her to become “fascinated” with suicide as she developed insecurities and sometimes struggled to even get out of bed.

Game Of Thrones Fans Panic As Sophie Turner Posts 'Spoiler' On Instagram

Sophie, 23, is now planning to take a break from acting after getting her mental health back on track with the help of therapy and medication.

She explained: “I've suffered with my depression for five or six years now. The biggest challenge for me is getting out of bed and getting out of the house. Learning to love yourself is the biggest challenge.”

Revealing how negative comments on social media affected her, Sophie said: “I would just believe it. I would say, ‘Yeah I am spotty. I am fat. I am a bad actress.’ I would just believe it. I would get [the costume department] to tighten my corset a lot. I just got very, very self-conscious.”

Sophie is now trying to focus more on herself and her hobbies and wants to work with mental health facilities in the UK to make them more accessible.

When asked what she would be doing next, the actress said she’ll be taking a break to focus on her mental health, she told Dr Phil: “I actually am still on my break, I took a break off of work to focus on my mental health because I thought it was important.

“So I'm still on that, and I'm just about to go into press for the final season of Game Of Thrones and a movie Dark Phoenix that I did, the latest X-Men is about to come out in June, so I'm getting ready for a big press tour for that.”

Sophie also said she’d “love to become a police officer” and try things outside of the acting industry.

> Download Our New App For All The Latest Celebrity News