People News

David Walliams recalls suicide attempts

Oct 4, 2012, 8:01 GMT

David Walliams

David Walliams has tried to kill himself four times.

The 41-year-old comic was just 12 years old when he tried to hang himself and tried again with a makeshift noose in 2003. He was also hospitalised after an overdose of painkillers when he was 18, tried slitting his wrists and contemplated ending his life by throwing himself under a train.

In his autobiography, 'Camp David' - in which he details the 'deep depression that has blighted [his] adult life' - he wrote: 'Wanting to die has always been in me.'

A 2003 diary entry documents his most recent suicide attempt, which followed the breakdown of a relationship.

It reads: 'Just tried to hang myself. But I knew I didn't really want to die, I just didn't want to live. I took my weight with my feet and sat down.

'Earlier, I had come close to stepping in front of a train. I am in total despair.'

He used a kitchen knife to slit his throat and wrists on New Year's Day 2003 but said: 'The determination wasn't there.'

David - who is married to supermodel Lara Stone - made his first suicide attempt after he was bullied at a Sea Scouts' camp. He fled to nearby woodland with a makeshift noose but was 'too tall'.