By: Natasha Archary
DJ Ankletap opened up about his toxic marriage, depression and attempted suicide during an interview on Podcast and Chill during Men’s Mental Health Month.
The former YFM radio personality, who is now the Breakfast presenter at North West radio station, You FM, candidly shared how he fell into depression after his divorce from Natasha Bishop.
Bryce Clarke better known as DJ Ankletap revealed how his hasty marriage, which only lasted 11-months, ended, taking him down a spiral of depression and suicidal thoughts.
A failed suicide attempted was the realisation the radio personality needed to get help.
“The easy answer is to say that it was a toxic relationship from the start, and I think I proposed way too quickly. I asked her to marry me after 6-months of dating, and the relationship was toxic, there was a lot of fighting, there was a lot of substance abuse.
Yeah, there was drug use, there was a lot of alcohol, I think the most prominent substance was alcohol but there was a bit of cocaine, ecstasy, you know party drugs.
What happened was, I came home from work one day and we had been partying the night before and I got home and she had made her mind up saying she wants to go to rehab.”
DJ Ankletap said that he was called to fetch his now ex-wife from rehab a day before she was meant to check out after an “incident” occurred.
The incident, he would soon learn involved another patient at the facility with whom Natasha allegedly had a sexual relationship with.
When he went to fetch her from rehab, the first words out of her mouth was, “I want a divorce.”
Failed suicide attempt and depression
His failed marriage took a toll on his mental health led DJ Ankletap to check himself into a rehab centre for depression, burnout and a failed suicide attempt.
DJ Ankletap claims he jumped from a toxic marriage to a rebound relationship with his YFM co-host Candice Coulsen, aka Kandis Kardash which also didn’t last, and this was what sent him into a dark place.
“After the divorce I rebounded. In that fragile state, when you rebound with someone after a trauma like that, you become seriously attached.
Like I was determined to make it work with the person I rebounded with. When you work with someone it makes it harder, and when that relationship ended, and it was a very normal breakup but losing that, with the weight that had been building up from my divorce kind of just hit me.”
DJ Ankletap said many in the entertainment industry don’t open up about their struggles with mental health, because they face the type of backlash that J Molley experienced when they do.
DJ Ankletap has now been divorced for 4-years, and his ex-wife married her rehab lover with whom she has 3 children.
One day at a time. To all those out there suffering mentally: YOU ARE NOT ALONE. Everything you feel or think right now does NOT define you. Your life matters. Help will be given to those who are ready to accept it. pic.twitter.com/GBaPCCtaDG
— Malome Tap (@DJAnkletap) September 2, 2021
