In an appearance on Kirk Franklin’s Den of Kings podcast, Jonathan Majors opened up about his struggles with suicide ideation.
Joined by Kevin Fredericks, NLE Choppa, Ray J, and Dr. Jay Barnett, the conversation veered toward the topic of mental health and suicide when Majors also spoke about his struggles. “I was on suicide watch,” he shared around the 17:50 point of the podcast, as seen above. “There were times when… me and my girlfriend, me and my fiancé, and now me and my wife, we never spoke about it, but she never left me alone. I never let myself be alone.”
Majors said that he bluntly told Meagan Good, to whom he got married earlier this year, that he had been struggling with the idea of living. “I put it to her very straight,” he said. “‘I just don’t want it.’ You know, talking about life.” Majors was asked what brought him to that place, to which he responded “isolation,” “ostracism,” "humiliation," and “abandonment."
“The funny thing about that is that… I’ve learned that those things, and having an event happen to you and getting arrested or losing a job… You think that’s the thing that gets you, but it’s usually, I found for myself, it was something way, way, way, way back,” he said. “I mean, drug overdose… Yep. Damn near lived on a roof, just plenty of—I don’t even smoke cigarettes—plenty of cigarettes and whiskey. I actually wrote a letter. I’ve done the whole thing and been there.”
Majors was commended for the “courage” it took to open about his mental health, prompting him to say Black men need to be more open with their mental health struggles. “But we are all born into a society in which our narrative as Black men, we’re born into a narrative that puts us downhill,” he continued. “And then you end up having to pretend that you’re somebody that you’re not to get through certain doors that I got through.”
Majors married Good earlier this year, and he has spoken candidly about how his legal issues impacted her work. In an interview on The Breakfast Club in March, Majors said that she lost work as a result of her relationship with him. They first started dating in May 2023, around the time he was facing misdemeanor assault and harassment charges, which ultimately cost him his role as Kang in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.