Popular rugby referee Nigel Owens had already revealed that accepting his homosexuality led to him coming close to committing suicide, but it wasn’t the first time.
He has now revealed he tried to take his own life, aged 11, as a schoolboy as he struggled to deal with bullying.
Owens admits he went to the bath one night to try and kill himself and told his mother the red marks on his neck, that she had spotted, were from “mucking about”.
The 47-year-old’s friends saw what was going on and intervened, sticking up for Owens, and the bullying soon stopped.
Owens told the Sun : “It got to such a dark place. I got so depressed that I thought there was only one way out, and that was to end my life. That’s when I did something I will regret for the rest of my life.”
He added: “You think the people left behind will be better off without me in their life, without this burden to look after me or deal with my depression. After I had the second chance, I realised what I had done and saw they’re no better off without me. That’s how I accepted who I was.”