Joe Swash has called his wife Stacey Solomon an angel and credited her as saving him when a bitter custody battle with his ex-partner saw him battle depression.
The former EastEnders actor, 41, says his mental health took a major dip while enduring a three-year custody battle over son Harry with former fiancée Emma Sophocleous.
Swash and Sophocleous began dating in 2005 and welcomed their first child together in 2007, but split less than a year later.
A legal fight over the custody of their son meant Swash did not see Harry for months and resulted in him battling “the darkest depression” as his personal life was in turmoil, he previously claimed.
The London-born star said he was a “mess” when the cameras were off and had shut himself away in his flat, leaving his mother Kiffy terrified for her son.
“I wouldn’t answer the phone, even though I knew my mum was really anxious about me,” he told The Sun.
He lost interest in his acting and TV work, with his thoughts consumed by “not being able to be the dad I wanted to be”.
It also brought back devastating memories of his father, who died when Swash was 11 from an undiagnosed heart condition.
“I’d always wanted a family and I thought: ‘I’m never going to have that’. It made me think about my dad,” he told the publication.
He had “given up on ever having a family” before meeting now-wife Solomon, who he first met in 2010 on the I’m A Celebrity...Get Me Out of His spin-off show, Extra Camp.
While it took a further six years for them to start dating, he now calls her the love of his life and says she is an “angel” who was sent to him by his late father.
“If I hadn’t met her, everything would have been very different. I don’t know what would have happened to me,” he told Fabulous magazine.
He added: “She’s so funny, so real and so lovely. I know she was sent to me, I knew it when I met her. I knew she was the only woman for me.”
Fast forward to now and not only are they married after they tied the knot last year, they share three children of their own — plus, Solomon has two sons from previous relationships.
Swash and 16-year-old Harry’s relationship is also in a much better place with them regularly enjoying father-son fishing trips together.
