'Project Runway' star Tim Gunn reveals suicide attempt

 

Tim Gunn, the debonair and confident host of "Project Runway," attempted suicide by overdosing on pills when he was 17 years old and "in quite a bit of despair."

"At the time it's all that I could contemplate," said Gunn, now 57. "I thought, 'I need to end things right now.'"

The next morning, waking up after the botched attempt, "I frankly just wanted to start life all over again," he said in a presentation that at one point had him nearly choked up with emotion.

Gunn spoke in a video he made for the Trevor Project's "It Gets Better" campaign, an effort that is snowballing in the wake of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi's Sept. 22 suicide after his roommate allegedly taped and broadcast a sexual encounter between Clementi and another guy after Clementi requested private use of their dorm room.

"It Gets Better" is aimed at supporting gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning teens; the Trevor Project is a 24-hour crisis and suicide prevention hot line for those same kids.

-- Christie D'Zurilla

Photo: Tim Gunn in November 2009. Credit: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times

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Comments

[mark shapiro]

every person on earth, at one point or another, has thought of suicide for one reason,,to get away from bad people and their inner anquish,,but if one thinks about the pain the suffering they will leave behind to their parents, friends and even their soul,,they should realize that in truth, there are rainbows after any storm and also a human being isnt on earth that long anyway and we do sleep a third of our lives away so make the best of it and be a giving person to others for that alone will cherish your soul.

[advocate]

Actually, the "It Gets Better Project" is a Youtube channel started by Dan Savage, the Savage Love columnist, not the Trevor Project. Although the Trevor Project is awesome too.