Ex-Bachelor Matt Agnew reveals heartbreaking secret struggle

Former Bachelor star Matt Agnew has made a harrowing revelation about his secret struggle. WARNING: Content may be distressing.

Matt Agnew has opened up about his heartbreaking battle with mental health, revealing he tried to take his own life two years ago.

The former Bachelor described his mind as “an enemy that never tires” in an emotional and honest chat with Jessica Rowe on her podcast.

“I’ve had a battle with mental illness for a long time,’’ Agnew said on The Jess Rowe Big Talk Show podcast.

“I first started seeing a psychologist when I was 12 years-old, I was struggling with quite bad anxiety as a child, so much so that I missed a lot of school.

“And then a bit over a decade ago, I was diagnosed with clinical depression and have been on antidepressants essentially since then. I’ve had a few challenges throughout that and I haven’t particularly talked about that openly.

“Things got really bad a few years ago where I tried to end my life in 2021.

“I ended up in hospital, I don’t remember the experience much. I remember actively making the decision to end it and then doing some particular actions to do that. I woke up in hospital, I don’t remember much.”

Matt Agnew spoke candidly about his mental health struggles. Picture: Nicki Connolly

A vulnerable Agnew often paused as he continued recounting his struggles.

“I was discharged and five weeks later I had plans … all the plans in place for a second attempt and was stopped by friends, and this was during Covid,’’ he said.

“My mum flew in for lockdown, she was in WA, I was in Sydney. I was inconsolable and ended up being admitted as an impatient for three weeks at a mental health hospital.”

Agnew, an astrophysicist who has moved to Melbourne, said he had further psychiatric care and has been since diagnosed with bipolar, generalised anxiety disorder and emotion dysregulation.

“I’ve been on a cocktail of medication to cope with all of that,” he said.

He added: “I get frustrated because it feels like so much effort and work and financially very expensive for me and I imagine for thousands of Australians, to exist. For me to have a baseline that isn’t dangerous is so much work and I want to make sure this isn’t a woe is me type story, because it’s not. It doesn’t discriminate.

“Sometimes it’s not about wanting to end my life, it’s about wanting to stop the pain.”

Rowe responded: “For you to share in this way is such a big thing and I thank you for sharing you in this way. Also when you are in the midst of that, it’s like you’re the only one. By you sharing, other people listening realise that there is always hope and I think about my mum who has bipolar disorder and there have been many times where she has had to go to hospital because we’ve been worried about what she might do. It’s important to talk about because this is hard hard stuff but if we don’t share it, it doesn’t help ourselves, help people we love or people listening to these conversations.”

She said people would never assume Agnew was fighting such a battle.

“Here is this smart, intelligent, funny, handsome, man who has had moments in his life where he hasn’t wanted to be here. And we don’t talk about that enough and how we can get through that,’’ she said.