Tom Grennan said being beaten as a teenager set him on a path of depression and poor fitness before he turned his life around, as he posed for the October issue of Men's Health UK.

The 30-year-old singer told the magazine that the attack, which occurred outside a chicken shop in his hometown of Bedford when he was 18, left him with severe jaw injuries that required surgery and the insertion of metal plates. He said the incident marked the start of "a spiral of getting unfit and having depression," and that in his twenties he fell into a cycle of heavy drinking and poor eating that left him "the most unfit" he had been.

Grennan said a second violent incident in New York in 2022 was less damaging psychologically because he had learned how to cope. "I woke up quickly and I immediately knew I had to snap out of it, so I didn't sink into a depression again," he told Men's Health UK. "I had to understand what happened and accept I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

The singer said endurance training, including long runs while preparing for Ironman events, helped him confront and manage darker thoughts. "When I go on long runs training for Iron Man, you meet every dark side of who you are. The endurance events have definitely helped me handle those experiences, no doubt," he said.

Grennan has previously described the first attack in interviews with other publications, saying it changed his sense of self. In a past interview with The Guardian he said the assault made his brain feel "as if I had been rewired," leading to chronic depression and a feeling that even strangers disliked him.

In the Men's Health feature Grennan also reflected on his twenties, saying he had spent years "going out every night, boozing and eating rubbish" and that his only exercise at times was performing onstage. He said that a turning point came when he decided he "needed to find something, and some people, that really challenged me." The accompanying photos show a markedly more muscular Grennan than in earlier years.

Offstage, Grennan has marked several personal milestones. He and his wife, Pilates instructor Danniella Carraturo, married in May 2024 at an estate in Majorca. The couple, who met in a lift in 2020 and later reconciled during pandemic lockdowns, quietly welcomed their first child earlier this year, a daughter named Dottie. Grennan announced the birth in an Instagram post that also celebrated his latest album reaching number one.

"From the kid who never thought he'd make it, to three consecutive number one albums," he wrote. "To now be stepping into fatherhood at the same time is the greatest gift I could ever imagine. Music gave me purpose, but being a dad gives me everything. Here's to the past that built me, the present that grounds me, and the future I can't wait for!"

A source told The Sun that Grennan and Carraturo were "absolutely besotted" with their daughter and had taken to parenting "like ducks to water," comments the singer did not directly confirm in the Men's Health interview.

Grennan has discussed how personal challenges have influenced his public life and performances. He told Australian radio hosts Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O Henderson that, because of dyslexia, he chose to write a song for his wife and perform it at their wedding reception in lieu of a longer speech.

The full interview and photo shoot appear in the October issue of Men's Health UK, on sale now. The singer is due to resume touring in September, and in his Instagram post he thanked fans for supporting his recent chart success and said he was "so excited for what's to come. We are just getting started."