Private Practice's Audra McDonald opens up about depression battle
'I had a suicide attempt': Private Practice star and Tony Award winner Audra McDonald opens up about battle with depression
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She won three Tony Awards by the time she was 28 years old.
But Audra McDonald has opened about a dark period in her youth which saw her attempt to end her own life while she was studying to become an actress.
The Broadway star, now 44, told ABC's Popcorn With Peter Travers that her suicide attempt took place while she was battling with depression.
'I had a suicide attempt': Audra McDonald opened up about trying to end her life while studying at Juilliard during a talk on ABC's Popcorn With Peter Travers
'When I was [in college] at Juilliard, I had a suicide attempt,' Audra revealed.
'I tried to slit my wrist.'
The former Private Practice star went on to win - thus far - a grand total of six Tony Awards, but explained that the road to her success had been emotionally rocky.
She described what it was like for her to endure this period of her life and how the prestigious performing arts school helped her through it.
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'They checked me into a mental-health hospital': The 44-year-old Broadway star said that her suicide attempt took place while she was battling depression
'When someone is suicidal, one of the first things you have to do is to protect them from themselves,' she said, before detailing the assistance she received.
'They had a mental-health facilitator there, a therapist there, and they checked me into a mental-health hospital, where I was for a month, and got me the help I needed.'
Audra revealed on the show that the two other factors that were instrumental in getting her back on track were anti-depressants and positive career prospects before she even finished her schooling at Juilliard.
'I want to thank all the shoulders of the strong and brave and courageous women that I am standing on': Audra made an emotional acceptance speech as she took home her sixth Tony Award in June in New York City
She explained that the school accepted her back once she came out of hospital, but first encouraged her to take on a stage role she was offered in a national tour of The Secret Garden.
'Julliard was like... 'We think that that musical theater thing is more for you anyway. That seems to be where you're the happiest.'
So Audra took the job before returning to Juilliard to complete the course.
The talented performer now has a happy family life; she married fellow actor Will Swenson in October 2012, and has a 12-year-old daughter named Zoe from her previous marriage to musician Peter Donovan.
Happy: Audra McDonald married fellow Broadway actor Will Swenson in 2012m seen here at the opening night of Kinky Boots in New York City in April 2013
And she is clearly thankful for her lot in life.
Audra, who has also moved into television with her portrayal of Dr. Naomi Bennett in six years worth of work on Private Practice, fought back tears as she accepted yet another Tony Award in June for her work as Billie Holiday in Lady Day At Emerson's Bar & Grill.
'I want to thank my mom and my dad up in heaven for disobeying the doctor's orders and not medicating their hyperactive girl, and finding out what she was into instead and pushing her into the theatre,' Audra told the clapping crowd in New York's Radio City Music Hall.
Proud mother: Audra also has a 12-year-old daughter named Zoe from her previous marriage to musician Peter Donovan, seen together at the Tony Awards in New York in June 2013
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