Former Aston Villa star Andy Gray says he felt suicidal after Sky Sports sacking

Former Aston Villa striker Andy Gray has revealed that he felt suicidal following his sacking from Sky Sports after making sexist comments.

Alongside presenter Richard Keys, Gray was the the lead pundit for Sky Sports and the two of them became the faces of Sky’s Premier League coverage.

In 2011, Keys, 65, and Gray, 66, were sacked after they made derogatory comments about female referee Sian Massey. Clips of Keys’ and Gray’s comments were caught on camera. Since 2013, the pair have been covering football in Doha, Qatar, for Al Jazeera.

In an interview with Piers Morgan’s TalkTV, Gray and Keys opened up on the sexist scandal which resulted in their sackings.

Speaking to Morgan, Gray revealed that he had suicidal thoughts following the incident.

He said: “I’ve had a wonderful life. Fortunate, lucky, I played seventeen years as a footballer, and it was glorious, best years of my life, and then I went to work in the sport that I love for a new broadcaster and to revolutionise it in the way it did, and I had 20 years there.

“So I suddenly found myself in a really dark place, the house surrounded by people, and I knew I had done something wrong, of course I did but I couldn’t compute it and my head was gone, and if it hadn’t been for my wife, I don’t know what would have happened I really don’t.

“I was close to going down the garden. I had a pond down at the garden,and I was close to going down with a little bottle and a few pills one day. I was that bad. One day.

“People who know me will think I’m kidding. I couldn’t work it out. I knew i’d done wrong but for two weeks I couldn’t leave the house, just surrounded by press and media. It was really weird - but I’m through it now.”