{"id":452877,"date":"2026-02-06T17:32:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T17:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/452877\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T17:32:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T17:32:14","slug":"rehab-fame-fatherhood-and-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/452877\/","title":{"rendered":"Rehab, fame, fatherhood and me"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kit Harington arrives at our lunch looking fresh-faced and clean-cut. He\u2019s wearing slim jeans and a chunky Loro Piana sweater. Gone are the long, curly locks of Jon Snow in Game of Thrones<\/a>, as is the pronounced beard his character Sir Henry Muck sports in the new season of Industry. He has just driven into London after dropping off his two children at school in the Suffolk village where he lives with his wife, the actress Rose Leslie.<\/p>\n

I had expected Harington to postpone both lunch and our photoshoot for Mr Porter, which took place the week before. His mother, the playwright Deborah Jane Catesby, with whom he was very close, died from a brain tumour shortly before Christmas. Her funeral took place at the weekend. It\u2019s too soon for him to talk about it publicly, but I suspect some semblance of normality is a tonic after the months Harington and his family lovingly spent caring for her.<\/p>\n

Despite still coming to terms with such a momentous loss, Harington is good company: open, charming and funny. Although he often has a resting hangdog expression \u2014 not a million miles from the one he had to sport while battling the elements and the White Walkers in eight seasons of Game of Thrones \u2014 that\u2019s not who he is. Or not all the time, at least. And, as he admits, looking miserable can have its benefits.<\/p>\n

\"Original<\/p>\n

Harington and Rose Leslie, now his wife, in Game of Thrones<\/p>\n

ALAMY<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to be the guy at the party sitting in the corner with the sad face,\u201d he says. \u201cI couldn\u2019t help it. But I\u2019d sit there and people would come over and ask, \u2018Are you OK?\u2019 And I\u2019d tell them I was fine. And I was. I was genuinely enjoying myself. But they\u2019d tell me how sad I looked and want to come and look after me. It was a great way to get someone to fetch me a drink; in fact, it was quite a good strategy if I was on the pull,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n

I should mention here that Harington and I have history. We\u2019ve known each other, on and off, for around 16 years. Before Game of Thrones, when he was an unknown actor with only a stint in the play War Horse under his belt, he and I and a few other friends used to hang out together. Our friend, the actor Richard Madden, would frequently invite us all to dinner at his flat in Hampstead on a Friday night and when we\u2019d get there, Madden would announce, each time, that he couldn\u2019t be bothered to cook. The table would be laid, but dinner was nothing more than a main course of vodka and a side of soda. The only ingredients visible were slices of lemon. We would then, drunkenly, either head to a nearby pub or, more often than not, indulge in a game of Chatroulette.<\/p>\n

\u2022 What Kit Harington told me about living with ADHD<\/a><\/p>\n

Chatroulette was all the rage in 2010. You would enter the website and begin a video chat with whomever appeared on your screen. It was totally random. And at any time during the encounter, you could press skip and leave them for another random user. You would either find yourself face to face with another group of drunk people sitting around a table or, more frequently, someone naked playing with themselves. You just never knew what you were going to get.<\/p>\n

\"NINTCHDBPICT001056033192\"<\/p>\n

Jacket, \u00a3620, RRL. Sweatshirt, \u00a3320, Auralee. Shirt, \u00a3785, Derek Rose. All mrporter.com<\/p>\n

HILL &AMP; AUBREY<\/p>\n

Kit Harington was the king of Chatroulette. He would brazenly engage with whomever popped up on the screen and unashamedly press skip as soon as he desired, often within seconds. You would see the faces on the screen light up when they spotted this absurdly handsome man peering at them and then \u2014 click! \u2014 he was gone.<\/p>\n

It was back then that Harington and Madden landed their roles in Game of Thrones. While we were happy that they\u2019d got work on a forthcoming HBO<\/a> series, the show sounded terrible. We were sure it would never make it beyond one season. After all, it was a medieval fantasy tale \u2014 Harington\u2019s character lived in Winterfell and was called Jon Snow, and Madden\u2019s was called Robb Stark. Who spells Rob with two Bs?<\/p>\n

\u2022 What the Game of Thrones stars did next<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI know,\u201d Harington recalls. \u201cWe sold our merchandise rights at the start because none of us thought it would take off like that. We filmed that first season and it was like one big party. We all worked hard and took our roles seriously, but we had a lot of fun too. We thought, well, this will last a season and then we\u2019ll go off and do other things and all stay in touch.\u201d<\/p>\n

When they\u2019d get back from stints filming in Belfast, the Friday nights with Chatroulette would continue.<\/p>\n

\u201cChatroulette was a good marker of Game of Thrones getting big,\u201d Harington smiles. \u201cWhen we first played, nobody knew who we were. And as we became more recognised, the reactions online were more extreme. We\u2019d land on someone masturbating and then they\u2019d look up and see me or Richard staring back at them. Click!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019ve been through addiction, like my Industry character\u2019<\/p>\n

Today we are here to talk about series four of Industry. The show, which started off as a story following a group of graduates trying to survive and thrive at an elite investment bank \u2014 with graphic portrayals of sex, drugs and power plays along the way \u2014 has turned into something a whole lot more. Created and written by Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, who both had stints working in the City, the show has grown from being one of the least watched shows on HBO to becoming an award-winning, critically acclaimed hit. Its creators cleverly combined culturally relevant storytelling, great writing, nifty casting, innovative filming and the chance for its actors to really go for it. And this is what Harington does this season.<\/p>\n

\"487399,Industry<\/p>\n

Playing Sir Henry Muck in Industry<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n

\u201cI was completely enraptured by the show from the first season,\u201d he says. \u201cI think they give every actor the opportunity to really step up and do something interesting. And, as they sometimes do, give a character \u2014 as they did mine in episode two of this season \u2014 the space to tell his backstory. Mickey and Konrad like giving you something weird, bizarre, fun and drastic to do. And casting characters unexpectedly. I think they did that a bit with me, if I\u2019m honest. They took me and realised that everyone knew me as this thing and went, \u2018OK, we\u2019ll go play this thing.\u2019 It\u2019s exactly what I was looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n

We see Harington\u2019s Henry Muck spectacularly spiral out of control<\/a>. The substance abuse moves from hedonism to self-medication; the sex shifts from a tool of superiority to self-sabotage; and his born privilege melts from beneath his bespoke-clad feet. Harington\u2019s performance is raw, uncomfortable and beautifully played. Some TV critics are already murmuring about it being Emmy worthy.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Read more TV reviews, guides about what to watch and interviews<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s also quite brave. Harington, after all, comes from fallen aristocratic stock \u2014 his father is a baronet \u2014 and spent time in rehab for addiction issues. He has spoken, in the past, about his struggles with his mental health. I ask him if it was triggering revisiting these issues through the character he was playing.<\/p>\n

\"NINTCHDBPICT001056033185\"<\/p>\n

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HILL &AMP; AUBREY<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I\u2019d certainly had a lot of practice,\u201d he laughs. \u201cWith Henry, his addiction is twofold. There is very much an addiction to substances and wild behaviour and abandon and chaos and euphoria. But as with most drug addicts or alcoholics, there\u2019s also an addiction to trying to prove himself in a way. And if you\u2019ve got those two, that\u2019s quite a toxic mix. But having been through that stuff, and lived [in] that world, and shared that combination of addictions, I could empathise with what he was facing.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut as for whether it was triggering\u2026 No, it was fun. You can\u2019t pretend that some of the elements that lead to addiction aren\u2019t fun. There\u2019s a part of me that misses the wild behaviour sometimes. I just realised it\u2019s not sustainable. But playing characters like this lets me revisit it in some way. And I felt safe in the hands of Mickey and Konrad. It\u2019s written so well. They\u2019re going to do the story justice because they\u2019re smart. They know that world. They understand the language, the partying, the codes. And despite the storylines, I\u2019m around a safe group of actors who aren\u2019t actually all wild. They\u2019re really hard-working. So, no, it was good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Fatherhood happened at the right time\u2019<\/p>\n

Family life also played its part in keeping him grounded after a day of manufactured mayhem.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause Rose and I knew it was going to probably be quite a heavy season with this stuff, and Rose was working in Stratford doing a play, she said, \u2018OK, you take the kids while you\u2019re filming in Cardiff.\u2019 So, when I\u2019d come back from filming, where I\u2019ve been doing God knows what, I\u2019d walk in the door and the kids were there. And anything dark I\u2019d had to deal with during the day was gone. It was bizarre and it was great. I\u2019d get home and be a dad.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

With wife Rose Leslie at the Met Gala, 2021<\/p>\n

GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

Harington shows me pictures of the children. They are beautiful. He loves being a father.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re both awake to the world and they\u2019re kind,\u201d he says. \u201cThey are all I want from my children. I have been blessed with two who have both those attributes in spades. Fatherhood happened at just the right time. And I think I\u2019m good at being a dad. My son was born when I was 34 and I realised the other day that when he\u2019s 20, I\u2019ll only be 54. That\u2019s not so old. I\u2019m in a weird moment in my life where, at 39, I\u2019m the same age my mum was when she had me. And I\u2019m in charge of these two. I\u2019m midway through my life. You used to think of your parents\u2019 lives before you came along as being this thing that stretched back to ancient times, but at this point, I\u2019m like, no, it really didn\u2019t. I feel like I\u2019ve hardly started. I feel very grounded. And I\u2019m beating myself up less about stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NINTCHDBPICT001056215380\"<\/p>\n

Fleece, \u00a3710, Auralee. Sweater, \u00a3690, Kaptain Sunshine. Trousers, \u00a3490, Nili Lotan. All mrporter.com<\/p>\n

HILL &AMP; AUBREY<\/p>\n

Fame, success \u2014 and rehab<\/p>\n

After Harington achieved such unprecedented success and fame with Game of Thrones \u2014 he was one of the highest paid actors on television for the last two series; the final episodes were watched by tens of millions of viewers \u2014 it did seem that his heart weighed heavy. He seemed less carefree and, of course, being in the public eye had its drawbacks.<\/p>\n

When a few of us went to Rome for a weekend in 2015, Harington was mobbed wherever we went. Whether we were sitting at a caf\u00e9 for breakfast or a bar at night, or just pottering along a side street, he was instantly recognised and asked for photographs. It was quite intense.<\/p>\n

At supper one evening, when his resting face looked even more glum than usual \u2014 mostly because we were all so hungover \u2014 I asked him what was up. He told me it was hard coming to terms, at the age of 27, with the possibility that he\u2019d already reached the pinnacle of his career. Where would he go from here? I understood what he was saying. It wasa year later that he first checked himself into rehab.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look at it this way,\u201d Harington explains. \u201cEverything in life up until 27 years old went so fast, and it felt as if the universe was expanding, everything was amazing and new and fresh. It was all incredible. And then at 28, it just didn\u2019t feel like that any more and I went to rehab for the first time.\u201d He left shortly after arriving, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went, \u2018You guys, I\u2019m not doing this.\u2019 I just wasn\u2019t ready. You have to be ready. I told them I knew there was a problem, but I couldn\u2019t deal with it. And then from 28 to 32, it was a slow process of recognising, \u2018OK, life doesn\u2019t carry on like that.\u2019 At some point, you\u2019ve got to grow up. And it took a long time for me to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

And amid all this, Game of Thrones was coming to an end. It was a lot for him to deal with.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I still haven\u2019t watched the final season,\u201d Harington admits. \u201cI have really odd feelings about it because I wasn\u2019t very well. I was in rehab when the final episode aired, so I missed it, and then I came out of rehab and had other things on my mind. And then I actually think I look rather unwell in that final season. I\u2019m not well. I\u2019m struggling with alcohol at that point. But I\u2019m quite proud of the work I was doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harington credits friends, colleagues and most of all his wife, Rose \u2014 the Scottish actress who played his love interest in Game of Thrones \u2014 with helping him to face his demons.<\/p>\n

\"US-ENTERTAINMENT-TELEVISION-HBO-STREAMING\"<\/p>\n

With Leslie at the premiere of her TV series The Time Traveler\u2019s Wife, May 2022<\/p>\n

GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a devil on my shoulder and he was a hard one to let go of,\u201d Harington says. \u201cWhen those close to me begged me to go to rehab, I remember saying that it was unreasonable to ask someone to live a sober life. I didn\u2019t want that. But once you\u2019ve got over it, you don\u2019t think about it any more. My life is better like this. I just didn\u2019t want to do that to myself any more. Rehab is also so expensive that you can\u2019t afford to leave [before treatment ends] \u2014 every time I thought about doing so, I\u2019d imagine burning a suitcase with that amount of money in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A year after rehab, Leslie fell pregnant, and then Harington became a father.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it all happened just at the right time,\u201d he says, smiling. \u201cI\u2019d made some choices, and then everything fell into place. And that\u2019s what I was told would happen if I made those choices. I think that my kids met me at the right time; just like my mum did with me and my brother.\u201d<\/p>\n

And now he\u2019s a father of two, living in the outskirts of a village in the Suffolk countryside, soon to celebrate eight years of marriage. \u201cRose and I are very caring of each other,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re very loving, and tactile, and we make sure we tell each other that we love each other. Rose is just the most genuine soul. I\u2019m very, very lucky. I really am. And Rose was there through all the hard stuff, and she\u2019s been through some journeys with me. But it has truly worked out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018If I don\u2019t go to the gym or do yoga, I get depressed\u2019<\/p>\n

As has his career. It turns out his 27-year-old self was worrying unnecessarily. Harington has cleverly carved out a path that has let him try his hands at a variety of roles and parts that are a million miles from Jon Snow. On stage, among others, he\u2019s played Henry V and Doctor Faustus. He\u2019s taken cameo roles in TV shows that he admires, appeared as romantic heroes and villains in a number of movies, his production company created and produced an historical drama about the Gunpowder Plot for the BBC \u2014 Harington starred as Robert Catesby, the leader of the plot (in fact, an ancestor of his on his mother\u2019s side) \u2014 and he has just produced and finished an adaptation of Charles Dickens\u2019s A Tale of Two Cities. Essentially, he\u2019s prioritised range and credibility over big bucks and franchises (with the exception of How to Train Your Dragon and Marvel\u2019s Eternals).<\/p>\n

Unnecessarily, perhaps, as he nibbles on a chicken salad and nicks only a few of my fries, I ask how he\u2019s managed to stay in such good shape. At nearly 40, he still appears to have the enviable physique and six-pack he sported when filming Pompeii back in 2014. There are a few scenes in Industry in which Harington is pretty much naked. And by the looks of it, Henry Muck\u2019s heroin addiction has done wonders for his body.<\/p>\n

\"NINTCHDBPICT001056215378\"<\/p>\n

Red sweater, \u00a3420, Dries Van Noten. Green sweatshirt, \u00a3275, Drake\u2019s. Trousers, \u00a3915, Tom Ford. Shoes, \u00a3770, JM Weston. All mrporter.com<\/p>\n

HILL &AMP; AUBREY<\/p>\n

\u201cIn all seriousness, if I don\u2019t go to the gym at least three times a week \u2014 and I do yoga twice a week \u2014 my head goes really f***ing weird,\u201d Harington says. \u201cI get very depressed. The sad boy in the corner comes back. But when I was playing Henry, I decided I was going to drop a lot of weight for episode two, so I would look as if I was on smack. In the end,\u201d he shrugs and laughs, \u201cI just looked ripped. I quite like looking less bulky now. As I get older, I think it looks better. So, I\u2019ve swapped protein shakes for intermittent fasting instead.\u201d<\/p>\n

And how did he find modelling for the Mr Porter shoot?<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoyed it because it was clothes I really loved,\u201d he says. \u201cYou didn\u2019t make me do anything stupid. Sometimes you\u2019ll go onto a set and they\u2019ll go, \u2018Look, here\u2019s all these fun props.\u2019 And they want you to be a performing monkey. And I just think, why am I here? What am I doing? And it takes me right back to a place where I didn\u2019t feel in control.\u201d Harington ended up buying a few of the items he wore in our shoot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always found fashion hard,\u201d he says. \u201cI was always the one dipping his toes into being a skateboarder or a goth. But I had one foot in and one out; I could never quite jump in. And it\u2019s always been that way with fashion and style. It\u2019s not me. I have turned up at various things in slightly wilder outfits, but they\u2019re always half-hearted. I\u2019ve never fully gone for it. I was thinking about what to wear to see you today and I thought I\u2019d put on the corduroys from the shoot. But then I didn\u2019t think I had any shoes that went with them and just thought, \u2018F*** it, I\u2019ll wear slightly tight jeans and a baggy sweater.\u2019 I really enjoyed the clothes they put me in for Industry, though.\u201d<\/p>\n

I ask Harington if he\u2019s going to miss Sir Henry Muck when the series ends. The viewers certainly will. And nobody yet knows if there will be another season. Nor if Muck will survive to see it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I like him a bit too much,\u201d he smiles. \u201cPeople are, like, he\u2019s despicable, isn\u2019t he? He\u2019s such a prick. And in my head, I\u2019m thinking, hmm, is he? I think he\u2019s probably the devil on my shoulder.\u201d <\/p>\n

Industry continues on Mondays on BBC1 and is available on iPlayer. Jeremy Langmead is brand\/content director of mrporter.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kit Harington arrives at our lunch looking fresh-faced and clean-cut. He\u2019s wearing slim jeans and a chunky Loro…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88],"class_list":["post-452877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}