Ahead of his tell-all interview on Channel Seven on Sunday, Craig McLachlan has admitted he attempted suicide after he was accused of sexual harassment.
The 55-year-old actor will discuss the toll the accusations took on his mental health in the 90-minute TV special, Spotlight: Horror Show.
McLachlan said he’d decided his longtime girlfriend, pianist and conductor Vanessa Scammell, and his family, would be ‘better off without me’.
Rock bottom: Ahead of his tell-all interview on Channel Seven on Sunday, Craig McLachlan has admitted he attempted suicide after he was accused of sexual harassment
He confessed he spent months mulling over whether or not he’d take his own life, before a failed suicide attempt.
McLachlan said he agreed to the tell-all interview so people could see the devastating impact the accusations had had on him and his family.
‘I thought I’d experienced some rock-bottom moments in my life, but nothing comes close to this,’ he said in the interview.
Distressing: McLachlan said he’d decided his longtime girlfriend, pianist and conductor Vanessa Scammell, and his family, would be ‘better off without me’. Pictured outside Melbourne Magistrates Court in November 2019
‘Really at that point, all you can think about is [that my partner] Nessie is going to be better off without me. My family will be better off without me.
‘I’m not afraid to talk about this because I’m hoping it will help people who have been in similar situations.
‘I’m loath to talk about it on the other hand, because I believe [some people] will celebrate this. They will celebrate knowing that [I was almost] condemned to such a painful purgatory.’
Getting help: McLachlan’s partner, Scammell, said he was in such a vulnerable state that he was forced to check into a mental hospital for his own safety. Pictured together at the opera in Sydney in March 2016
He added: ‘It comes to a point where you realise, that… there is still stuff to live for. In the end, you’ve got to make the decision.’
Meanwhile, McLachlan’s partner, Scammell, said he was in such a vulnerable state that he was forced to check into a mental hospital for his own safety.
She revealed that his ‘mental health was so fragile’ that they were left with ‘no choice’ but to have him admitted to hospital.
Attempt on his life: He confessed he spent months mulling over whether or not he’d take his own life, before a failed suicide attempt. Pictured outside Melbourne Magistrates Court in November 2019
‘It is actually hard to articulate the horror of what’s happened to us. I can’t put into words every day, every night – I haven’t slept for three years. I still don’t sleep,’ she added.
In a teaser trailer for the tell-all interview released on Monday, McLachlan breaks down in tears as he discusses the accusations.
‘I was public enemy number one. I am sitting here today, 100 per cent acquitted, I’m an innocent man,’ he says in the trailer.
‘I thought I’d experienced some rock-bottom moments in my life, but nothing comes close to this,’ he said in the interview. Pictured outside Melbourne Magistrates Court in December 2019
Craig, who was accused of sexual harassment by several actresses he’d worked with dating back to 2014, adds: ‘The thing that I’m alleged to have done… to my friend. [I thought] how am I gonna survive this?’
McLachlan goes on to say that ‘in this post-Weinstein, #MeToo world gone mad, I can’t win’, and then insists: ‘It didn’t happen.’
His longtime girlfriend, Scammell, was also interviewed for the Spotlight: Horror Show special.
Standing by him: McLachlan’s longtime girlfriend (right), was also interviewed for the Spotlight: Horror Show special
Scammell says in the trailer that McLachlan was ‘abandoned by everybody’ after the allegations against him came out.
Earlier this month, McLachlan said his life had been ‘ruined’ in another teaser trailer for the bombshell interview.
‘You see this is not just about a headline for the day, this is ruining lives,’ he said in the earlier promo.
Tears: Earlier this month, McLachlan said his life had been ‘ruined’ in another teaser trailer for the bombshell interview
‘Not just me, you want to crucify me? Fine. Look what it’s done to my beautiful partner, look what it continues to do to my family every day.’
In the first teaser for Spotlight: Horror Show, McLachlan looked dishevelled, sporting a grey beard and long hair.
‘Hope your lives are good, treasure them because they can be taken away like that,’ he said, before snapping his fingers.
‘You see this is not just about a headline for the day, this is ruining lives’: McLachlan is set to tell his side of the story in the interview, which follows his acquittal on all charges
McLachlan is set to tell his side of the story in the upcoming interview, which follows his acquittal on all charges.
In December, McLachlan was found not guilty of indecently assaulting actors during the running of the hit musical, The Rocky Horror Show.
McLachlan had maintained his alleged offending while working on the production was no more inappropriate than a cricketer giving a teammate a pat on the bum.
Dramatic: In the first teaser for Spotlight: Horror Show, McLachlan looked dishevelled, sporting a grey beard and long hair
In a 105-page decision, Melbourne Magistrate Belinda Wallington found McLachlan not guilty of all charges.
Ms Wallington said it was McLachlan’s ‘egotistical self-entitled sense of humour’ that led him to believe at least one of his alleged victim’s would either not mind or find his behaviour funny.
‘I want it noted the following: The four complainants were brave and honest witnesses. I was not persuaded that there was evidence of collusion between the complainants,’ Ms Wallington said.
‘I was not persuaded that there was evidence of motive, or that the complaints were made for reason of career ambition or any other such reason.’
Court: In December, McLachlan was found not guilty of indecently assaulting actors during the running of a hit musical
As the contested hearing at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court drew to an end, it was heard McLachlan’s defence had submitted 160 pages denying the allegations.
He had endured months of scrutiny which saw him and Vanessa forced to make their way through media packs outside of a Melbourne court.
Police had alleged McLachlan either indecently assaulted or assaulted four complainants in Melbourne between April 26, 2014 and July 13, 2014.
Complaints: Police had alleged McLachlan either indecently assaulted or assaulted four complainants in Melbourne between April 26, 2014 and July 13, 2014
The allegations became public after one of his alleged victims went public following the worldwide scandal involving disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein.
McLachlan immediately filed defamation action against The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, the ABC and an actress over the news reports last year.
The defamation trial had been postponed until the criminal proceedings in Melbourne finished and is now expected to proceed.
McLachlan has applied for the police to pay his costs.
Pictured: McLachlan as he appeared in the hit soap opera Neighbours back in his glory days