‘The Crown’ star Jason Watkins is convinced he suffers from ADHD.
‘The Crown’ star Jason Watkins is convinced he suffers from ADHD
He has admitted the condition – which can cause everything from hyperactivity to impulsiveness – was bought to his attention by his youngest son, Gilbert, who bought him a book on it.
The BAFTA-winning actor, 61, who has four kids and is famed for his stage career and for playing British Prime Minister Harold Wilson on the third series of Netflix’s popular royal drama ‘The Crown’, told former newspaper editor and Downing Street spin doctor Andy Coulson’s ‘Crisis What Crisis?’ podcast: “I thought that book was for me to read about him, possibly. But it was me.
“And he said, ‘Of course it’s you. I’ve given you the book, you read it.’”
Jason, who has also appeared in the ITVX drama ‘Archie’, also revealed he now believes his suspected attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder was obvious before his son gave him the book.
He added: “I did sport and acting and everything, but reading and writing... my eyes would jump around and I couldn’t concentrate.
“It’s probably ADHD, almost definitely.”
Jason also told Andy’s podcast how he wants accident and emergency units to examine procedures surrounding infants after his young daughter died from sepsis.
Opening up about his fury over the death of his two-year-old girl Maude on New Year’s Day 2011, he said the rage led him to smash up his shower.
He added: “It was anger at fate. Why should we deserve this? You feel really vulnerable and there’s a sort of rage against that.
“And there are all these different ways of resolving and wrestling out of this horrible dark pit that you’re in.
“Sometimes you feel like a complete victim and there’s no way out, and other times you start smashing the shower up because you’ve got to break out and get on with life.”
Jason and his wife Clara had taken Maude to their doctor and hospital before they came back to A and E the following day when she became pale and floppy and passed away, and he now campaigns for the UK Sepsis Trust.
He added: “My anger was fuelled into trying to work out better ways of dealing with sepsis, or even more than that, the way that we look at infants in A and E. “Because I had identified that there wasn’t an individual at fault in the hospital, it has to be the system. So we’ve got to improve it.”
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