The Wiggles’ former member Greg Page opens up about crippling loneliness during time with group
Former The Wiggles member Greg Page has opened up about his mental health during his tenure with the group in the 2000s.
In an interview with the Herald Sun, Page revealed that his time in the children’s music group only included “superficial” relationships with his bandmates – this was due to him being unable to deal with his mental health struggles.
“I was going through some personal issues back then,” Page told the Herald Sun. “I probably, in a way, helped create my own lonely environment by not dealing with the issues that I had.”
Page decided to share about this period in his life because he now intends to raise awareness of the pervasive effects of loneliness. According to Herald Sun, one in four people in Australia face persistent loneliness, with new research labelling it an epidemic – especially amongst young Australians.
Page added that, as he soldiered on during The Wiggles’ tour in the US, he mainly kept to himself. “I think everybody kind of knew that there was stuff going on and let’s face it, most people have stuff going on in their life,” he said.
“But it’s how you deal with that and how you cope with it that can be the trigger for becoming lonely,” He continued, noting that, at the time, he didn’t even realise he was lonely.
Page departed the group in 2006 amidst his mental health struggles. Since then, Page returned to the fold for a brief period in 2012. In 2020, during a reunion concert with the original Wiggles line-up, Page suffered cardiac arrest while onstage, from which he has since made a full recovery.
In May, the current incarnation of The Wiggles topped the Australian dance music chart with ‘The Wiggles Soundsystem: Rave of Innocence’, an album of rave remixes. It outranked releases from bigger artists such as Sia and Rufus du Sol in the charts.
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Daniel Peters
NME
