Embattled former senator Jacqui Lambie has finally broken her silence and opened up about her suicide attempt in the wake of her battle with depression and addiction almost a decade ago.
‘I just remember thinking, “This is it, I’ve had it”,’ she shared with Lisa Wilkinson on Channel Ten show The Project on Sunday night.
The incumbent Tasmanian MP revealed that she tried to kill herself in 2009 and even wrote letters to her sons, explaining: ‘I’d just given up and I just thought, “I’ve become a burden and I’m no use to them anymore”.’
Embattled former senator Jacqui Lambie has opened up about her suicide attempt on Sunday
‘Jacqui (right) doesn’t hold back in our interview,’ said Lisa Wilkinson (left) on Sunday night
Ms Lambie announced her resignation from the Senate in 2017, after revealing she held dual British-Australian citizenship which is prohibited by the Australian constitution.
In a previous interview, the single mother and candid politician opened up about how a military career-ending back injury in 1997 saw her slip into a cycle of depression.
‘I got worse then the psychological side of it started to set in. Depression basically and then, you know, eventually over five or six years then it went into alcohol abuse, pharmaceutical,’ Senator Lambie told news.com.au in 2014.
Her youngest son Dylan suffers from similar addiction issues, which Ms Lambie believes is partly a result of the pressure that was put on him having to help care for her from age seven.
She attempted suicide in 2009 by walking in front of a car after writing short letters to her sons, sustaining serious injuries and losing several teeth.
Jacqui Lambie’s (right) youngest son Dylan (left) has struggled with an addiction to drugs
Jacqui Lambie (right) has talked about her struggle as a single mother with addiction issues
But she said the incident was a turning point for her. Ms Lambie gave up alcohol, pharmaceutical drugs and ‘cleaned her act right up’ – becoming a senator in 2014.
‘One thing is for sure, Jacqui doesn’t hold back in our interview. And from talking to people on the street, it’s that same no-holds-barred honesty that means she will get their vote in the next election,’ Wilkinson said on Sunday.
Her new book, Rebel With A Cause, will be published this year, and promises to reveal ‘what she really thinks of Malcolm Turnbull and Barnaby Joyce’ as well as recount her time in the army and her dealings with Veterans’ Affairs.
Ms Lambi’s book promises to reveal what she really thinks of Turnbull (left) and Joyce (right)
Rebel With A Cause is due out later this year
Allen and Unwin describe her upcoming autobiography as ‘not a political book’.
‘It’s the story of her life as an ordinary working class girl from Tasmania, and her journey through the army, her enforced medical retirement after 10 years when she suffered a horrendous back injury, her fight to get adequate treatment and compensation from the DVA,’ the publisher wrote.
The book then details her ‘struggles to raise two kids as a single mother on welfare, her son’s ice addiction, the slow rebuilding that saw her determined to prevent other people experiencing the bureaucratic-inflicted torment that she was forced to survive’.
Finally, it addresses her roller coaster ride as a politician her resignation from the Senate and her plans for the future.
Embattled former senator Jacqui Lambie has opened up about her suicide attempt on Sunday