Lucy Fallon, the actress known for playing Bethany Platt in Coronation Street, has revealed she spent five weeks as an inpatient in a psychiatric hospital after hitting “absolute rock bottom” with her mental health. The 30-year-old spoke about the experience for the first time on the Secure the Insecure podcast.
Fallon left the soap in March 2020 after five years as the first Covid lockdown began, and work opportunities slowed. She recalled: “From quite young, I’ve always struggled. I’ve always been quite insecure. That got worse when we went through lockdown because I left Corrie and I wasn’t really getting any work.” She added that she was “at the absolute rock bottom that I’ve ever, ever felt”.
She ended up being admitted to The Priory, a private psychiatric hospital in south-west London, for about five weeks towards the end of 2020. Fallon said the decision was not hers, explaining: “Other people were involved – my mum and my sisters and people that I’d worked with before. It almost felt like other people were telling me, ‘Right, you need some serious help now’.” Initially reluctant, she said: “After a few weeks of being there, I was like, OK. I got to grips with it. And actually after a week of being there, I liked it. I felt quite safe.”
Fallon, who is engaged to footballer Ryan Ledson and shares son Sonny, three, and daughter Nancy, 13 months, said leaving the facility was challenging. She spent time with her parents afterwards, which helped her adjust. Reflecting on that period, she said: “It seems like a completely different life. That was a totally different version of me.”
She also opened up about a miscarriage in early 2022, saying she felt “devastated” and “stuck”. However, she noted that if it hadn’t happened, she wouldn’t have her son Sonny. Fallon said meeting Ryan helped mark a new chapter, and she now feels she deserves happiness. She concluded: “I don’t know if it was to do with being at The Priory for five weeks. But things just kind of stayed at a good level for me.”
