Joe Swash has described his now-wife Stacey Solomon as an 'angel' for 'saving him' after a bitter custody battle with his ex partner saw him battle depression.
The former EastEnders star, 41, says he struggled with his mental health during a three-year custody battle over son Harry with former fiancée Emma Sophocleous.
Joe and Emma began dating in 2005, and welcomed their first child together in 2007, but split less than a year later.
A legal battle over custody of their son meant Joe didn’t see Harry for months, leading to him battling “the darkest depression” as his personal life was in turmoil, he previously claimed.
Despite winning I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here just months earlier, the TV star said he was a “mess” when the cameras were off, and had shut himself away in his flat, leaving mum Kiffy terrified for her son.
“I wouldn’t answer the phone, even though I knew my mum was really anxious about me,” he told The Sun.
Joe didn’t care about his acting or TV work, as he was devastated over “not being able to be the dad I wanted to be”, and it brought up sad memories of his dad, who died when he was 11.
“I’d always wanted a family and I thought: ‘I’m never going to have that’. It made me think about my dad,” he shared.
Joe was just 12-years-old when he lost his father Ricky, to an undiagnosed heart condition.
Joe admitted he had “given up on ever having a family” before meeting Stacey, as the future couple first clapped eyes on each other in 2010 on the I’m A Celeb spin-off show, Extra Camp.
It took six years for them to start dating, however, but Joe claimed Stacey was the love of his life, and was an “angel” sent by his dad to “to bring me out of real darkness in my life”.
“If I hadn’t met her, everything would have been very different. I don’t know what would have happened to me,” he told Fabulous magazine.
“She’s so funny, so real and so lovely. I know she was sent to me, I knew it when I met her. I knew she was the only woman for me,” Joe sweetly shared.
The TV star even confessed he felt “guilty” about how happy he is with Stacey, who he wed last year, and their blended family of six children - baby Belle, Rose, 1, and Rex, 4 - as well as Zachary, 16, and Leighton, 11, from Stacey's previous relationships.
Joe has even developed a close bond with son Harry, now 16, and the father-son duo regularly go for days out to enjoy the star’s favourite pastime - fishing.
And the much-loved cheeky chappy hasn’t ruled out expanding his brood with wife Stacey.
As well as revealing they were contemplating becoming foster carers later in life, Joe said having kids “is addictive”.
“If I can be half what my dad was to us as a family, then I’d be happy. And I’m never going to say never to more kids. Let’s see what happens,” he gushed.
