His mother, Tessa, the daughter of the late author Roald Dahl, has had a lifelong struggle with psychiatric problems.
And on Monday, Sophie Dahl, 44, took to Instagram where she shared a snapshot from her childhood and reflected on growing up with “mental health and addiction issues” at home.
The model – who is married to singer Jamie Cullum – admitted that she often felt lonely at the time, but now that she is older, she is aware that many other families have had the same experience.
Throwback: On Monday, Sophie Dahl, 44, took to Instagram to share a snapshot from her childhood and reflected on growing up with ‘mental health and addiction issues’ at home
Sophie wrote: ‘I grew up in a home where there were mental health and addiction issues. I’m not alone in this, but when I was younger I often felt like I was.
‘It warms my heart that there is now a non-profit school therapeutic service, @_place2be, serving young people and school communities across the UK, listening to children and helping them develop their inner resources.
‘Now we know what a difference early intervention makes. I’ve seen the impact of @place2be’s extraordinary work firsthand, and I’m proud to be their ambassador, supporting #ChildrenMentalHealthWeek.
‘For more information visit @_place2be or childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk.’
Awareness: The model admitted that she often felt alone at the time, but now that she is older, she is aware that many other families have had the same experience.
Family: Sophie’s mother Tessa, 64, has had a lifelong struggle with psychiatric problems (pictured together in 2001)
In 2014, Sophie opened up about her mother Tessa Dahl’s addiction and mental health struggles, telling Red, “My relationship with my mother is loving but complicated because of her issues.”
“It’s not something I talk about much, but anyone who has grown up with an addicted parent will know how difficult it is.”
Tessa dropped out of school at 15 and embarked on some wild years of partying and adventures with actors David Hemmings and Peter Sellers.
When she was 19 years old, she had a daughter, Sophie, with actor Julian Holloway, but they separated soon after.
Candid: ‘I grew up in a home where there were both mental health and addiction issues. I’m not alone in this, but when I was younger I often felt like it was written by Sophie (pictured at 17 with her mom Tessa in 1994)
A long manic period followed, with more parties and spending sprees. He moved houses 17 times, lived in an ashram in India and wrote a well-received novel, Working For Love, published in 1988.
She was married twice, to businessman James Kelly, with whom she had Clover and Luke, and then to Australian Patrick Donovan. They separated when she was three months pregnant with her son Ned.
In 1990, her famous father, the author Roald, died, the day after he first told Tessa that he loved her, and it was then that she began ‘self-medicating’ with drugs and alcohol.
She left her four children, Sophie, Clover, Luke, and Ned, to be raised largely by nanny Maureen Noble. In fact, her youngest son barely saw her mother during his early years, and Tessa has previously admitted, “I’ve been a lousy mother.”
In 1997, after being declared bankrupt, Tessa became addicted to Valium, cocaine and alcohol.
She attempted suicide, but fell into a coma that left her paralyzed and wheelchair-bound for two years. Sophie was 20 years old at the time.
Since 2005, Tessa has lived in the US at first, on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, where she had a huge collection of rescued parrots, pigs, and dogs and cats.
In 2011, she moved to Lincoln, Connecticut to be within walking distance of the renowned McLean Psychiatric Hospital, made famous in the movie Girl, Interrupted.
Flirting with Catholicism at the time, she enrolled in a close cloistered order of Benedictine nuns at the Abbey of Regina Laudis, until the abbess objected to some attendant publicity.
Late diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Tessa said in an interview in 2012, “I have a team [at McLean]…
“I’ve been going three times a week to see an addiction psychiatrist, a top-tier psychiatrist, a psychopharmacologist, a social worker, and doing Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) to help me communicate with modified emotions.”
Family: Tessa left her four children, Sophie, Clover, Luke and Ned, to be raised largely by nanny Maureen Noble (pictured with Luke, Clover and Sophie in 1989)
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