Beverley Callard Opens Up About Depression, After Being Signed Off 'Coronation Street'

‘Coronation Street’ actress Beverley Callard has opened up about her recent mental health troubles, after being signed off work with depression.

Beverley - who plays one of the soap’s best-known characters, Liz McDonald - has opened up about her battle with the mental illness, admitting that her problems came to a head when she broke down behind the scenes of ‘Corrie’.

Speaking to The Mirror, Beverley reveals: “I was getting worse and worse each day. I was getting ready in my dressing room and I couldn’t take it any more. Liz had to be dressed up for a certain scene - she had to wear a PVC outfit.

“Fear took over and I started to cry. I thought, ‘I’m not confident enough to put this on. I can’t do it’.”

She claims things came to a head two weeks ago, when she broke down in tears and was sent home from work.

Beverley continues: “A few days later, I was behind the bar in the Rovers when depression swamped me like a big blanket. I thought, ‘I’m not brave enough to do this today’.

“I was crying and one of the make-up girls said, ‘You’re not well, are you, darling?’ ‘No’, I said. ‘I’m really not’. Bosses then sent me home.”

However, after a short break, Beverley says she’ll be back at work next month, adding: “Fortunately – or unfortunately for some – I will be in those PVC miniskirts very soon.

“There is so much stigma around mental illness, and that’s the reason you have to talk about it.

“Everything in my life is amazing and wonderful right now and you think, ‘How can this happen to me again? Why?’ I’ve got a wonderful husband, a fantastic family and a great job. I’ve got nothing to moan about whatsoever.

“But once you start to slide into that black hole you can’t ever imagine being well again.”

Beverley’s mental health battles have been well-documented, and in her 2010 autobiography, ‘Unbroken’, she discusses her struggles with depression, which culminated in electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).

Earlier this week, she tweeted about how she felt her depression had returned, after learning that one of her prescription medications was no longer available.