Carl Barat: Libertines frontman tried to take his own life after reuniting with Pete Doherty

Exclusive: Musician speaks for first time about how he 'just didn't want to be in my body'

Pete Doherty (L) with Carl Barat (R) at The Libertines' reunion gig in Hyde Park (Getty Images)

The Libertines’ Carl Barat has revealed how he tried to kill himself in 2003 by smashing his head against a sink after drinking a bottle of whisky.

It happened when he had reunited with Pete Doherty to write the second Libertines album at manager Alan McGee’s house in Wales.

“I just didn’t want to be in my body. It was just all these childhood issues that you try and unravel in therapy and a cry for help,” said Barat, 36, who will release albums with his new band The Jackals and The Libertines next year.

“I don’t really want to put people through that again,” he said. “It’s flirting with death and occasionally it goes too far.”

Barat has been suffering from depression for years and says he is only now starting to feel better through a mixture of therapy and meditation.

He said: “I realised I had to totally change – I just couldn’t be this depressed and self destructive – not when I’ve got children. I had to find myself instead of being eternally lost.

“With depression there is often a comfort in being depressed and I had to find a way to get through that. My family has been a salvation to me.

Barat added: “When the demons start to surround you, if you cut out the booze and the self-destructiveness, you break the cycle. It seems like a miracle and there is sunshine again. You have to want to work through it though. You just pray people find that moment before anything happens. And that often doesn’t happen, but I was very lucky.”