EastEnders' Max Bowden opens up about grief and "relentless anger"
EastEnders star Max Bowden has opened up about his experience of grief in a powerful social media post.
The actor, who has played Ben Mitchell in the BBC soap since 2019, was asked by poet Hussain Manawer to read out one of his poems to camera, titled ‘You May Have Died, But You Are Still Alive’.
Bowden posted the video on his Instagram, alongside an in-depth caption which opened with the statement, "Let’s talk about grief."
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He wrote: "This comes in the wake of a personal journey of self love and acceptance in my latter stages of grief, navigating a new outlook for what has happened and the profound effect it’s had on me and my everyday life.
"For a long time I felt unable to cope with the pain and relentless anger I felt towards the world in the wake of so much loss, well documented publicly. I now feel it’s time for me to open honest, frank, accepting conversation about the human experience of grief through discussion and art."
Bowden continued: "I’d love to hear how anybody is dealing with grief personally right now be it positively or negatively in the comments, so we can somehow create a world in which we aid the majority. In the meantime, listen to the beauty of these words from a true wordsmith, and remember, this too shall pass."
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The soap star’s poetry reading received a lot of praise online, including from his fellow EastEnders actors. Jacqueline Jossa commented, "this is really moving xx", while Diane Parish wrote, "This is masterful and moving Max".
Strictly Come Dancing finalist Bobby Brazier also commented a heart eyes emoji on his co-star’s honest post.
In September, Bowden marked two years since his close friend passed away with an emotional Instagram post. "Two years without you and I can honestly say I’ve found it harder this second 12 months than the first," he wrote at the time.
EastEnders airs on Mondays - Thursdays at 7.30pm on BBC One. The show also streams on BBC iPlayer, where most episodes drop early at 6am ahead of their TV broadcast.
Read more EastEnders spoilers on our dedicated homepage
If you identify with the themes in this article, the NHS has resources available to help with grief counselling and other support in the UK. In the US, the CDC also has resources available for those grieving.
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