Rolf Harris Opens Up About Troubled Personal Life


Australian entertainer Rolf Harris broke down in tears during a TV interview as he opened up about his battle with depression and his troubled personal life.

The veteran star wept during a chat with Piers Morgan in which he described leaving his wife Alwen alone to fly to the U.S. for work just hours after the birth of their daughter Bindi in 1964.

He says, "The baby was due and eventually, the night before I was expected to fly out to America, she was induced. I didn't know I could pull out of the contract. You don't at that age... It's an awful sadness. Two weeks later she flew into New York and I didn't recognise her. She had dyed her blonde hair brown. Guilty on all counts, your honour. I regret the time I missed with Bindi growing up. I avoid things, I steer around things, like my father."

Harris, 81, admits he later struggled with depression after his cartoon TV show was axed, and the blow left him feeling as if his "life was over."

He adds, "I didn't know what to do with myself. I didn't know what to think. I now know what people mean when they say, 'I've got clinical ­depression.' I'd never felt so low. There's no way to come out of the ­blackness. I felt out of control.

"I remember my family said they didn't know who I was. They said I was a total stranger. They had never seen me like this before. They had to walk around on tenterhooks. It was such a black period. It was just like my life was over.

"At the time my manager took me to a meeting about another programme. I sat there like a zombie through the meeting."

Harris was interviewed as part of British TV show Piers Morgan's Life Stories.


Rolf Harris




Rolf Harris




Rolf Harris




Rolf Harris




Rolf Harris