Sheridan Smith "lost the plot" and "ran away" after her father died.
The 37-year-old singer-and-actress was left devastated when her beloved father Colin passed away in 2016 and she admitted her loss sparked a "massive meltdown" that she’s only recently put behind her.
She said: "I kind of lost the plot after that and had a massive meltdown.
"I ran away. There’s that kind of northern, ‘Keep calm and carry on’ vibe – we’re all like that.
"I feel I’ve come out the other side now."
The ‘Mrs Biggs’ actress admitted she has always found it "terrifying" to reflect on herself.
Speaking on upcoming documentary ‘Sheridan Smith: Coming Home’ – in which she returns to her hometown of Doncaster, North England, for the first time since her father’s death – she said: "To look at myself is terrifying.
"It’s scary and is something I guess I’ve run away from, for a long time."
Sheridan has "always" struggled with anxiety, but previously admitted her battle "snowballed" following Colin’s death.
She said: "I’d been performing anyway leading up to that, and I’ve always had a bit of anxiety, and so I was a little bit nervous but the catalyst of it all was my dad.
"I want to say ‘It’s okay not to be okay’ because I didn’t speak about it and then it snowballed and it came to this huge head."
And her grief caused Sheridan to cancel her appearance in the musical production ‘Funny Girl’, which she "hated" having to do.
She explained: "It was the worst thing, I hate it and I always think ‘The show must go on’ and I hate letting anyone down but I think the public understood in a way that you can’t choose when these things happen. It was a gradual build up when my dad got diagnosed and I just couldn’t continue, I lost my mind, I completely did to the point where people were stopping me in the street and cuddling me because people understand that, it’s just life. Unfortunately you can’t just take time off from a show, you get a lot of abuse so that’s what happened."
Sheridan Smith ‘ran away’
