Former Coronation Street star Helen Flanagan has described “struggling and being so low” after breaking up with footballer ex Scott Sinclair in 2022.
The actress has three children from her 13-year relationship with the former Manchester City and Swansea winger. She opened up to the Mirror that she has been “crying all the time”.
She said the sober reality hit home when she booked a New Year getaway to Bali with children Matilda, eight, Delilah, five, and Charlie, three.
“My kids weren’t with me on Christmas Day because I like to be really fair with my ex, and it sounds so silly because it was only one day, but it hit me really hard,” she said.
“The plan was for me to take them to Bali for New Year instead, and although I enjoyed it, I didn’t feel myself. I was struggling. I felt terrible when I got back, I was crying all the time, I felt so low.”
Flanagan, who clocked up more than 1,000 episodes in Corrie as Rosie Webster, spoke out ahead of Mental Health Awareness week, which begins on Monday.
The pair had never been married but, she said, it still felt like a “divorce” all the same when they broke up in October 2022 having got engaged in May 2018.
“I don’t see it as a break-up, I see it as a divorce,” she said.
“We were together for 13 years. But instead of processing it all, I threw myself into work and shut off my emotions. I just went into survival mode. Then it all came to the surface earlier this year and I was mentally and physically breaking down.”
The 33-year-old was recently sent into a psychosis after a “bad reaction” to her ADHD medication. It led her to pull out of a theatre tour of Cluedo 2.
“It was really sad and very scary,” she said. “I was seeing things and I felt like I was in danger all the time.”
On taking time off, she added: “I love work but my kids need me at home more. Having that time off was healthy, it changed my life in a way."
She said that Sinclair, who now plays for Bristol Rovers, looks after the children for the majority of the time but the pair are now in a “better place” and looking to date other people.
“I don’t want to live with toxic feelings, I want to get on with the father of my kids and he’s the same,” she said.
“When we found each other on a dating app we had a laugh about it, which shows how far we’ve come.”
