Former Liverpool footballer Jermaine Pennant has opened up about his diagnosis with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and how it has helped his relationship, in a new interview.
The 39-year-old, who played for Arsenal, Birmingham, Liverpool and Stoke during a 18-year professional career, appeared on Good Morning Britain to discuss receiving the diagnosis later in his life, after years troubles in the public eye.
Pennant was officially declared bankrupt at the start of the year amid debts to a string of creditors, including HMRC, banks, councils and utility companies, which were estimated at £1m.
The former professional football player, who now lives with actress girlfriend Jess Impiazzi in Surrey, told hosts Kate Garraway and Ben Shephard about the ‘life-changing’ ADHD diagnosis, which he now thinks explains much of his volatile behaviour over the years.
He said: “It's huge. It’s life-changing. My partner now, if it wasn’t for me getting diagnosed, we probably would have broken up, because it's so difficult to live with.
“I have to take melatonin at night because I can't sleep. Coming on this show, I've already played this show out in my mind twice over.
“It’s like trying to manage eight screens. It’s a very busy, active brain.”
Tipping Point host Ben recalled learning how Pennant left a Porsche parked at a train station in Spain for five months after he completely forgot about it.
The vehicle had a 'P33NNT' number plate, but the winger denied knowing anything about it at the time.
He now says his forgetfulness is down to a diagnosis of ADHD and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), linked to childhood trauma, and led to a number of poor life choices.
On the advice of a fixer, Pennant paid £1.2m for a six-bedroom mansion in Cheshire in 2006 which he then forgot about after moving from Liverpool to Real Zaragoza in Spain three years later.
He left the house empty, but was unbeknown to him still paying the interest-only mortgage on it.
The abandoned property was later broken into by a drugs gang and used as a cannabis farm.
Last year, a fire ripped through the house destroying everything inside, in an incident police are investigating as arson.
Pennant is now a pundit for talkSPORT and, after an appearance on Celebrity Big Brother in 2018, he is set to appear in SAS: Who Dares Wins alongside ex-Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV.
