Controversial Coronation Street star reveals heartbreak after death of beloved family member
CONTROVERSIAL former Coronation Street star Chris Fountain has shared his heartbreak after the death of a beloved family member.
The actor, 36, has revealed that his grandad has passed away with a poignant post on his instagram.
Chris, who is best known for playing Tommy Duckworth on the ITV soap, shared his sadness at the loss of grandfather by sharing a picture of them together on his instagram stories earlier tonight.
Posting a sweet throwback snap of the two of them, Chris wrote: “Goodnight old pal.”
The former soap star then followed it with a broken hearted emoji.
Chris, who also starred in Hollyoaks, often shared snaps and videos of himself enjoying trips away with his grandad.
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In a post uploaded to his Instagram in September, Chris referred to his grandad as his “best pal” as he shared a short video of them enjoying a day trip together.
And another post uploaded to Chris’s feed in September showed the pair posing for the camera together.
Chris’s sad loss comes a year after the actor suffered a stroke aged just 35. The actor was left needing heart surgery and intensive treatment following the medical episode which left him unable to speak.
The former Dancing On Ice contestant has also battled depression in recent years since being sacked from Corrie in 2013 after he posted a shocking 'rape rap' video.
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In 2022, he told the Mancs on the Mic podcast: “I’ve been in some very dark, horrible places, to the point where I realised I needed to start changing the way that I was thinking – otherwise I might not have been here.”
The actor recalled his downfall, saying: “My life, my job, my image, my reputation – everything was just ripped away. Within 24 hours. I didn’t leave my house for four days.”
He says he realised he was suffering from depression because his head felt like “a swamp”.
Chris added: “I’d never been this discombobulated before. I was meant to go on This Morning, and then that got cancelled because they didn’t want me on there. After a while, I was like, ‘I think I’m going through depression here’.”
Speaking about the video which got him axed, he admits it was a terrible mistake: “I can’t condone anything that I said. I’m ashamed of it, I’m embarrassed of it, but at the time, I wasn’t thinking, ‘Yeah, I want to be really vicious towards women’. That wasn’t the case at all.
He continued: "I’ve got more respect for women probably than men, because the way that I was brought up and the passion and care and protection I’ve had from women has been incredible throughout my life.”
On the toll his downfall has taken on him personally, he revealed: “You’re just sat in that hole, going, ‘Oh my God, I’m just awful. I’m a horrendous person. I’ve got nothing to offer to anybody’. And that’s when I was in my darkest moments.”
