Chloe Delevingne’s husband Edward Grant has today bared his soul for the first time about a quarter century-long battle with crippling anxiety and depression.
Despite appearing to be flying high at swanky Chelsea parties with a successful career and a happy family life, Edward says he has been condemned to a ‘life prison sentence’ since his early 20s.
And the father-of-two – whose socialite wife is the sister of famed model Cara – revealed how the Covid-19 crisis has had a profound impact on his mental health because his daily distractions were swept away with lockdown.
Writing for the Sunday Telegraph, Edward acknowledged ‘on paper I’m extremely fortunate’ – but said he had been privately ‘locked in an exhausting battle with anxiety and depression.’
Chloe Delevingne’s husband Edward Grant, pictured in 2014, today bared his soul for the first time about a quarter century-long battle with crippling anxiety and depression
The father-of-two – whose socialite wife is the sister of famed model Cara – revealed how the Covid crisis has had a profound impact on his mental health. Pictured, Chloe Delevingne and her husband Edward in 2016
Edward, who lives with wife Chloe and their two children Atticus, seven, and Juno, five, in the Cotswolds, started battling chronic anxiety, extreme panic attacks and crippling insomnia after leaving Bristol University.
The property developer began working in west London nightclubs, and while partying hard and rubbing shoulders with celebrities, admits he felt ‘pressure’ to be the ‘life and soul of the party’.
At the age of 21, in the mid-2000s, Edward had his first panic attack while at a restaurant with friends – and with no idea what was happening, thought he was dying while unable to breathe.
His mental health was so bad that some days Edward was unable to get out of bed, and after confiding in his father a year later, he started seeing a psychiatrist who prescribed antidepressants and twice-weekly counselling sessions.
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Edward, who lives with wife Chloe and their two children started battling chronic anxiety, extreme panic attacks and crippling insomnia after leaving Bristol University. The couple are pictured in London, 2014
While medication and therapy helped, Edward still experienced bouts of depression and anxiety – and by the age of 30 was drinking heavily and relying on prescription sleeping pills to help him cope.
In 2010 Edward began dating Chloe – with the pair marrying four years later – and says that in the early years of their marriage his mental health improved, only to decline again once their first son Atticus was born.
Chloe had developed with sepsis after giving birth for the first time, and while pregnant with daughter Juno, Edward describes staying for ten nights straight with extreme anxiety – terrified his wife would fall ill once again.
When the pandemic hit last March, Edward’s mental health began to crumble, terrified of illness and financial ruin while isolated from his family and friends.
Edward says that as the world opens up again following the pandemic, he feels as though he’s overcome his illness for the first time in 25 years. Pictured, Chloe and Edward in Battersea, 2014
Desperate to get to the root of his illness once and for all, Edward found an online group of people living with acute anxiety disorder under the recommendation of a friend.
‘I began to really try to understand my illness’, wrote Edward, ‘Where it stemmed from, and what I could finally do to stop it dictating my life’
The group meet regularly to support one another, and along with therapy, Edward has began to control his illness with mediation and daily exercise.
He says that as the world opens up again following the pandemic, he feels as though he’s overcome his illness for the first time in 25 years, insisting that it feels he’s been given a ‘fresh start’.
Source: Daily Mail
