David Harbour has a name for what happened after a British tabloid reported that Millie Bobby Brown filed harassment claims against him. He calls it a breakdown, and says the story that set it off was false.
Harbour, 51, told Variety that last fall’s Daily Mail report, which claimed Brown filed “pages and pages” of bullying and harassment complaints before the final season of “Stranger Things,” pushed him into a mental health episode. “I had a breakdown,” he said, then laughed. The story ran a week after his ex, Lily Allen, released “West End Girl,” an album widely read as being about him. He called the timing “weird.”
Harbour, who has spoken openly about living with bipolar disorder, framed the friction with his co-star as routine. The two played father and daughter for 10 years. “Under times of extreme stress, that can cause somewhat erratic behavior, and it’s embarrassing, and I’m ashamed of it,” he said. What turned a private disagreement into a public one, in his telling, was the machine around a billion-dollar show that two actors could have settled alone.
Brown sent Variety her own statement, describing a relationship that grew “much more collaborative creatively” and an experience she’ll “always remember and value.” Harbour said the rupture has been repaired. “I love her. She loves me,” he said.
