Freddie's mercury rising! 'MY LIFE IS A HOLLYWOOD MOVIE'

In his quest to be a bett er man, the dad moved his family to New Zealand and set out on a mission near impossible

- Kelly Bertrand

Drunk, overweight and depressed... The Freddie Bennett who existed five years ago couldn’t be more different than the one the Weekly is chatting with today – a happy, inspirational (albeit exhausted) one who has just returned from a gruelling 300km run across the Arctic Circle.

“I couldn’t even run to the end of the street five years ago,” Freddie, 42, tells. “My life was totally different in every way. Sometimes I can’t quite believe how much everything has changed.

“I was living in the UK and from the outside, life looked really good. I had the Porsche on the driveway and the Rolex on the wrist, the young family and the happy marriage, the ski holidays.

“But on the inside, my life was falling apart and I was living in quiet desperation. I hated myself. I wasn’t happy with who I was. I was unfit, overweight and drinking every night.”

Having fallen into a dark pit of depression, Freddie couldn’t see an out. He found himself in horrific situations – getting kicked off airplanes for his behaviour, locking himself out of hotel rooms and, most terrifyingly, being held up at gunpoint in New York City by a drug dealer.

But even a gun to his head wasn’t enough for Freddie to change, nor were wife Sarah’s pleas for her husband to get help.

“It was such a difficult place for her to be, to not have confidence in or trust her husband,” Freddie reflects.