Former England rugby captain Lawrence Dallaglio, 54, has revealed he sought therapy after a period of intense "self-pity" following the collapse of his nearly 20-year marriage and subsequent bankruptcy. Dallaglio, a 2003 Rugby World Cup winner, spoke about his struggles on The High Performance podcast, detailing how he withdrew into "hibernation" as his personal and financial life unraveled.

The divorce from his model wife Alice became public when they were seen at London's Central Family Court last year. The couple, who married in 2005, had weathered allegations of affairs and sold their family home for £2.4 million in May. Just a day after the property sale, Dallaglio was declared bankrupt.

"I was made bankrupt. I had some financial problems," Dallaglio stated on the podcast. "I probably was guilty of withdrawing back into my little shell and going a little bit into hibernation because naturally I'm quite a sort of extrovert, confident, bubbly individual, annoyingly confident sometimes."

He admitted to questioning why things had gone wrong, saying, "What I didn't expect was so much of a period of such self-pity. I've been a little bit guilty of being a bit sort of, isn't life really unkind? And haven't things worked out against me? Is it all me or is it just bad timing?"

Dallaglio's financial difficulties stemmed from the collapse of his company, Lawrence Dallaglio Limited, which entered voluntary liquidation in 2023 after facing a winding-up petition from HMRC. He had previously avoided bankruptcy by reaching an agreement on a substantial unpaid tax bill. He was ordered to pay off an overdrawn director's loan exceeding £366,500, and further reviews revealed total debts of £423,570.

The former rugby star connected his bankruptcy to the divorce, suggesting that suppressing his true feelings might have offered an alternative path. "Much of it was my own doing. That's the first thing you have to acknowledge. I could have done things a lot better," he reflected. "Might not have got divorced. I could have been one of those people that just parks all the real feelings and just carries on and lives a lie. I don't know. Maybe I could have carried on doing that."

The combined stress of his divorce, significant financial pressure, and the death of his father, Vincenzo, at age 91, last year eventually compelled Dallaglio to seek help. He described initially being in "denial" and telling himself the upheaval was not affecting him. "You've got divorced, you've had some massive financial pressures. Your dad's dying and has died. That's a lot to deal with, maybe. And maybe I'd sort of turned a blind eye to it because that's what I've always done."

Dallaglio's lifelong tendency was to push problems aside, but he realized last year that he required external support. "First of all is acceptance. I'm not going to be able to solve this on my own. I need some help here to traverse back to a path that I think I need to get to," he explained. "And for someone who spent his whole life helping other people, it's quite difficult to admit that you need some help yourself. And the hardest person to admit it to is yourself."

He confirmed seeking therapy after attempting other methods to cope. "Yeah, of course. But before I sought therapy, I sought every other way of blocking out." The Insolvency Register currently lists his discharge from bankruptcy as suspended until August 31, 2027.

Dallaglio believes he has gained a new perspective after moving past the most difficult period. "I'm certainly not broken. I felt like it. I've done a lot of self-pity and that doesn't really get me very far," he said. "I've now moved on, with the right help, to now feeling that I just need to - the only person that's going to fix this is me, really."

He added, "There's lots of things I'd do differently, but if you lose your money in life, you've lost nothing. If you lose your health, you've lost something. But if you lose your word, you've lost everything."

Earlier this year, reports indicated Dallaglio had moved into a rented four-bedroom house in St Albans, Hertfordshire, with a new partner. A neighbor described him as looking relaxed and happy, enjoying walks with a new puppy.

Dallaglio, who earned 85 caps for England and captained the side 22 times, was a prominent figure in English rugby. His career was also marked by off-field controversies, including allegations of drug use in 1999, for which he was fined and disciplined by the Rugby Football Union. He later married Alice in 2005 after a period of trial separation. He retired from rugby in 2008 and has since worked in media and as a charity patron, receiving an OBE for his contributions.