Kit Harington Life After Game Of Thrones

Since laying down his sword in game of thrones, the english actor has been fighting other battles, including alcohol addiction and depression — and the first fatiguing months of fatherhood

- Charlotte Edwardes

Every morning, shortly before he wakes up his six-month-old baby, Kit Harington rings his mother to express thanks; such is the revelatory insight he now has into parenthood. And, yes, it’s also for help when he gets the baby out of his crib, but, mostly, “I can’t believe I took them for granted like that. I look at our boy, and I’m like, ‘I’m never going to get the thanks that I deserve for changing all these nappies and looking after you’”.

The baby — Harington and his wife, the actress Rose Leslie, do not wish to make his name public — was born at University College Hospital in London in January. Harington has a phobia of needles and fainted at one antenatal, so no, he did not cut the cord. “I’m a real wimp when it comes to blood and pain.” His impression of the event is still his profound shock: “I remember saying over and again, ‘It’s a baby. It’s a baby. It’s a baby.’ ”

Fatherhood and marriage are central to Harington’s new life. Sober for two-and-a-half years following a stint in rehab, it’s a life for which he is very grateful — although cautiously so, because sobriety is a fragile thing. He feels settled now; retreating on the horizon is a period so dark he thought about taking his own life. It’s a period that overlapped with the last days of Jon Snow, the Game of Thrones character he played for a decade to an audience so fanatical that 19.3 million watched the finale. Life is “wonderful”, he says. “I have a child and my relationship is brilliant. I’m a very, very happy, content, sober man.”