Keira Knightley says she got PTSD from being chased by paparazzi

Actress spoke about being 'followed around by 20 guys who are actually deeply misogynistic'

Keira Knightley (Getty)

Keira Knightley has spoken candidly about being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) when she was 22-years-old.

The Colette actor was speaking to The Hollywood Reporter’s podcast when she began discussing how being chased around by the paparazzi in her early twenties affected her health.

“Being followed around by 20 guys who are actually deeply misogynistic, it was a really rude awakening to the world of misogyny,” she said. “It was literally men shouting at me, calling me a whore.”

Knightley pointed to Amy Winehouse and Britney Spears who were having public problems at the same time, saying it was “big money to get pictures of women falling apart”.

“If [female stars] weren’t breaking down in front of [the paparazzi], then it was worth their while to make you break down in front of them," she said. "There’s a lot of money to get your boyfriend or father to physically hurt [the paparazzi] over the stuff they are saying to you. And there’s a lot of money from suing you.

“So suddenly there was a level of violence, it felt, in the air, that is not a thing that anybody would react to well.”

The 33-year-old went on to say that she developed a “f*** you button”, but leaving the house everyday was still a “battle”.

“I did have a mental breakdown at 22,” she said. ”I did take a year of there and was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, because of all that stuff.

“It was amazing when I finally went deep into therapy and [the therapist] said ‘I normally come in hear and have people who think people are talking about them and they are being followed, but actually they are not. You’re the first person that actually that is happening to’.

“She said a wonderful thing, and that’s that the world around you is going crazy but actually you’re dealing with it quite well. I took a year off at that point and very much stepped back from big budget films.”

Knightley first came to national attention in the film Bend It Like Beckham in 2002, when she was just 17. The next year, she starred in the international sensation Pirates of the Caribbean as well as the Christmas blockbuster Love Actually.

She stars in the upcoming biopic Colette, which is released in UK cinemas on 25 January 2019.