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Kel Mitchell Reveals Being Suicidal In The Past

Kel Mitchell seemed to fade into the background after the success of Kenan & Kel and Good Burger in the late 90’s. Now the former child star is opening up about his battle with depression and suicidal thoughts after losing his career and his wife in the span of a few short years in the latest issue of People Magazine:

In 2004, his hit sitcom Kenan & Kel had been canceled, film work was scarce and his six-year marriage to Tyisha Hampton was ending.

“As a young actor, there are ups and there are downs. And when you get to that down part, there are times you feel like no one can relate to you. When Britney Spears shaved her head, I understood that.”

“I felt like I’d hit a wall,” the former teen star, now 37, says in the current issue of PEOPLE. “I was like, ‘Okay. I need to figure out what I need to do in my life.’ ”

Mitchell now calls that time in his life a “confusion moment,” but he has admitted on his blog that he was “suicidal” and “deep in sin” while dealing with his “divorce, drug and alcohol usage … the lost of love ones to gang violence, debt, hurt, pain, vanity, lust [and] heartbreak.”

But rather than let the darkness he was experiencing overtake him and send him further down a tragic path, Kel turned to his faith in Jesus and turned his life around:

“I was trying to figure it all out on my own. But what I needed to do was turn to Him,” says the actor, who became the stage manager at a non-denominational Christian church in Los Angeles. “Once I found that clarity with Christ, I knew everything would work out.”

Now, the actor says he has found “peace” thanks to his relationships with God, his son Lyric, 16, daughter Allure, 14, and his new wife Asia Lee, a designer and rapper whom he wed three years ago.

“I enjoy living this life,” says Mitchell, who currently stars on the new Nickelodeon sitcom Game Shakers (Saturdays at 8:30 p.m. ET) and tours doing stand-up and motivational speaking. “I don’t let things frustrate or worry me anymore. I don’t do that because I have peace in my heart. I have God.”

Good for him! So often you hear stories like this turn out tragically, but thankfully Kel was able to find God –and himself — before it was too late.

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