Models singer James Freud, who took his own life yesterday, had confessed to Richard Fidler at the ABC three years ago that he had tried to take his own life numerous times.
“I tried to kill myself three times,” he told Fidler on his Conversations radio show in 2007. “I swallowed a whole bottle of pills in front of my family. I tried to hang myself in the park and all sorts of things but being accident prone as I am I couldn’t even do that properly. I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t see anywhere to stop and there was nowhere to get any help”.
During the exceptionally honest and open interview, James admitted leaving once to go away and die. “My intention was to go to Hawaii and drink myself to death because I heard that the singer from Big Country had done that and it seemed like a romantic idea,” he said. “I was completely insane. I thought I would go and have a last swim in the Pacific Ocean and then drink myself to death and die with flowers around me”.
51-year old Freud was found dead yesterday morning (November 4, 2010) in his home in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn.
Listen to the 2007 Richard Fidler and James Freud interview here.
For help or information visit beyondblue.org.au, call Suicide Helpline Victoria on 1300 651 251, or Lifeline on 131 114.
