Alan Ritchson reveals suicide attempts after sexual assaults

Actor Alan Ritchson has confessed to an attempted suicide after he was sexually assaulted multiple times.

The Blue Mountain State star detailed a day in 2019 when he found a green extension cord, climbed to the top, tossed the cord over the rafters, wrapped it tightly around his neck, and let go.

“I hung myself. It all happened so fast, and I was dangling there,” he revealed.

The attempt took place in the attic of his Encino, California home.

However, The Reacher star shared that he made a last-minute decision to pull himself up before he blacked out. He attributes this decision as divine intervention after he saw visions of his sons - Calem, 11, Edan, 10, and Amory, 8 – in their mid-30s.

“They calmly asked me not to do it, and told me that they wanted me to be here, alive and part of their lives,” he said.

He shares his three children with his wife Catherine Ritchson and has been married to the financial analyst for nearly 20 years.

After the incident, the Black Mirror actor realized he needed immediate help and sought a diagnosis. He was eventually diagnosed with bipolar diagnosis at the age of 36 and ADHD when he was 40.

Ritchson revealed that the suicide attempt came after years of sexual assault he suffered when working in the modeling industry and transitioned into the acting world.

He claimed, “There are very few redeeming qualities to working in [the modeling] industry. Let’s be honest, it’s like legalized sex trafficking. The industry is not regulated, and it’s a widely known secret that if you’re hired on a job, you’re basically being passed off to a photographer to be trafficked.”

“The number of times and situations where I was put in horrific environments where sexual abuse was the goal and the paycheck that you were desperate for in order to survive was the carrot, I can’t count on two hands. It was quite often,” Ritchson confessed.

But after years of abuse, he decided to quit modeling.

He revealed, “I was booked for a shoot for this very famous photographer. I was sent into a hotel room to do nudes with the promise that if I did the shoot, he would offer me a very lucrative campaign for a magazine and a clothing line. I was sexually assaulted by this guy.”

However, Ritchson’s transition from modeling to the television and film industry was not smooth sailing.

“She gave me an ultimatum to come to her room and said that if I didn’t, she would destroy the business and she would destroy me by calling TMZ to claim I sexually assaulted her,” he alleged.

“I was super depressed and didn’t know how to navigate that,” he added.

Ritchson shared that he now navigates his mental health struggles, bipolar disorder, and ADHD with his psychiatrist.

He recalled, “I came out of that whole thing asking myself, ‘OK if I am going to choose to be alive here — a decision we all make, some to a greater degree than others — what am I doing? Why am I here?' What I kept falling back on was the meaning and purpose of life as someone who believes that there is a creator and we are created beings, our purpose in life is, without qualification, to make the world a better place and serve others.”

“That is what life is all about,” the actor shared.