Corrie’s Beverley Callard thinks she had a breakdown because she is a ‘workaholic’

Coronation Street legend Beverley Callard reckons she had a mental breakdown because she is a workaholic.

The actress – who played Liz McDonald for 31 years – says if she had been a quitter she may have taken a break sooner and avoided her 2010 on-set collapse.

Much-loved Beverley, 64, said: “I’d struggled for so long knowing something was wrong but not knowing exactly what it was. You say all those things to yourself, like ‘get a grip’. In the end I couldn’t go on any longer.

“With hindsight I know I was a workaholic,” she revealed, before looking back at the journey she has been on over the last few years.

Speaking candidly, the star said she had 12 sessions of electroconvulsive therapy after being diagnosed with severe ­clinical depression.

Beverley’s life and career were greatly affected by the incident.

The breakdown led to her being dropped from Corrie’s live 50th anniversary episode after a show boss told her she was “flaky and unreliable”.

Beverley added: “Clinical depression is a curse of the strong.

“It does not happen to weak people. It does not happen to ­people who are quitters.

“It happens to people who are strong, who are people-pleasers, who are perfectionists and who demand too much of themselves.”

Beverley, who is an ambassador for mental health charity Mind, said the first step to getting help is to speak up.

She went on to star in I’m A Celebrity and won over a whole new generation of fans thanks to her kind ways and her unlikely friendship with Radio 1’s Jordan North.

Before entering the camp, her Corrie co-star described her as a “very emotional person” who he feared would struggle if campmates “upset” her.

Victoria Derbyshire was also expelled.

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