British actress attempted suicide while filming in Cyprus

BRITISH actress Michelle Collins has revealed in her new autobiography that she tried to commit suicide while filming in Paphos in 1998.

Collins, 51, who has had roles in Coronation Street and Eastenders was filming the BBC series Sunburn in Cyprus at the time. She says in her book This Is Me that she had taken an overdose of headache pills because she was “seriously depressed”.

Her daughter was only two years old at the time. Collins told the Sunday Mirror: “I felt like I’d been tipped over the edge. I felt like a failure and found myself sinking lower and lower as the days went on, until in the end I couldn’t seem to pull myself out of the hole. The question that kept going through my mind was, ‘Would anybody miss me if I wasn’t here?’ Foolishly I somehow decided no one would.”

On the night in question, Collins had gone out with a friend and stayed on to have drinks with a group of people in the same bar. One of the men insulted her looks and her age, which resulted in her returning to her villa in an emotional state.

“My mind was cloudy and all I wanted to do was sleep,” she told the British tabloid. “The cocktail of alcohol and exhaustion sent me into a very dark place.” She then took the pills but woke up feeling sick and phoned Sunburn co-star Peter Polycarpou who drove her to the hospital. They kept the incident quiet until Collins revealed it in her book.