Chris Fountain has spoken about the “dark depression” he went through after being axed from Coronation Street.
The actor, who played Tommy Duckworth in the ITV soap, was sacked in 2013 after a shocking video emerged showing him rapping about rape.
At the time Coronation Street bosses said they had “no choice” but to terminate Chris’ contract as he had breached their code of conduct.
Now, almost 10 years on, Chris says he knows the video – filmed during a freestyle rap battle - was a terrible mistake and his career is still suffering to this day.
The 34-year-old opened up about his struggles during an appearance on the Mancs On The Mic podcast hosted by former Corrie co-star Ryan Thomas and his brothers Scott and Adam.
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He said: “The context of the stuff that I said [in the video] was horrendous. I would never think to say that to anybody.
“But 24-year-old me was just thinking ‘I want to rap.’ I was just trying to do what everyone else was doing.”
The video was filmed in a private studio and was never meant to be seen by the general public, but someone leaked it to the press.
Chris continued: “When we’re talking about challenges this was an absolute monster.
“My life, my job, my image, my reputation – everything was just ripped away within 24 hours. I didn’t leave my house for four days.”
Describing the moment his life changed forever, Chris said: “I’ve been in some very dark, horrible places to the point where I realised I needed to start changing the way I was thinking – otherwise I might not have been here.
“I didn’t really understand mental health that much back then. I’d never been this discombobulated before.
“I was meant to go on This Morning and then that got cancelled because they didn't want me on there. Then I parted ways with my agent. Then there was no work.
“It was just this constant thing. Then after a while I was like ‘I think I’m depressed, I think I’m going through depression here.’
“Then it got to a point where this isn’t just sadness now. This is something else. My whole body is f*****. My head just feels like a swamp. Even to this day now, I don’t think I’m the same person now that I was before.”
After leaving Coronation Street, Chris appeared in Kay Mellor’s ITV drama Girlfriends in 2018 and has acted in plays.
But a decade on from the rap video scandal, he says his work prospects are still “bleak”.
“Am I not getting jobs because of that [the video] – or am I not getting jobs because I’m not as good an actor as I once thought I was? I don’t know if I’ll ever find that answer.”
Despite being an actor since he was 10 and shooting to fame as Justin Burton on Hollyoaks as a teenager, Chris is seriously considering another career path.
He said of the scandal: “I can’t do anything else now. I’ve put out an apology. I’ve explained what happened... but every time I get a new job someone will write ‘rape rapper makes a comeback’. I’ve made about five comebacks now.
“When do I knock this on the head? For the first time in 20 years I’ve started contemplating ‘do I need to start thinking about doing something else here?’”
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