People rush to support sports star as they open up about mental health battles
Snooker fans have rushed to support former world champion and world number one Neil Robertson as he rings in a major milestone with wife. The Australian sportsman rang in an important day for his wife Mille. Sharing a photo of the couple on their wedding day, Neil praised Mille for reaching the sixth anniversary of her sobriety.
Neil called the ‘normalising’ of conversations around mental health, while celebrating all Mille has achieved. Posting on X, formerly known as Twitter[1], Neil wrote: “Mille my beautiful wife is 6 years sober today! Unbelievably proud of her.
Finishing a masters degree at Cambridge University, having our daughter Penelope and now doing her PHD since then. “We need to normalize the conversation around mental health and alcohol/substance use, as they are so closely correlated. Don’t be afraid to reach out to loved ones, you would be surprised what people would do to help.”
His post was met with an outpouring from his fans and followers, with his post being viewed over 1.1 million times, as well as garnering 328 comments, 323 Retweets and over 9,700 likes. One user, Fella, said: “Wow Neil, what a picture but an even stronger message. Thank you.”
Ben replied, “Powerful, thank you for sharing. We need more in recovery sport wise. one day at a time it gets better,” while Andres Petrov wrote: “Very happy for your family, you and your wife are great role models, cheering for you all the time, all the best Neil.” Hello Gillian commented: “Congratulations to Mille, may there be many more to come.”
The couple met back in 2008, and share two children Alexander, 13, and Penelope, four. The pair finally tied the knot back in August 2021. Neil has previously spoken about supporting Mille with her struggles with anxiety and depression.
Speaking on Eurosport’s Vodcast[2] in 2020, Neil said: “What Tyson Fury did a year or so ago, when he did that documentary where he discussed his issues with mental health, his anxiety and depression, watching that I felt as though I was watching Mille talk, he was talking about the exact same thing more or less,” he says. “She wasn’t substance abusing with drugs, but with anxiety one of the big things people do is drink alcohol to try and settle it down, and that is what Mille was doing, which was very tough for me to try and juggle that and try and be one of the best snooker players in the world. “For a few years, I was doing that without really talking about it.
I had a few mixed results on the table and people not really knowing why, obviously it wasn’t myself going through those issues, but when you are trying to help someone through them, it’s probably, in some ways, it can probably be worse because you feel completely helpless in that situation.”
If you’ve been affected by any of the topics mention, please call Samaritans[3] on 116 123 or CALM[4] at 0800 58 58 58.
References
- ^ Twitter (www.walesonline.co.uk)
- ^ Eurosport’s Vodcast (www.eurosport.com)
- ^ Samaritans (www.samaritans.org)
- ^ CALM (www.thecalmzone.net)