Kit Harington feels "lucky" to have kicked his addiction issues before becoming a father because he "hated himself" when he was drinking.

The 37-year-old 'Game of Thrones' actor - who is dad to two young children with his wife and former co-star Rose Leslie - checked into rehab back in 2019 to battle his demons and Kit admits he's glad he was able to sober up and get his life together before his kids arrived.

He told GQ Hype: "I was so lucky I got sober before having kids ... The very fact that I can be proud of it [being sober] is an achievement. Because before getting sober, I would stare in the mirror and call myself a c***. I'd hate myself. I would literally despise myself and not be proud of anything I'd done. I couldn't be proud. So the fact that I am proud of getting sober is in and of itself a mark of being an entirely different person ... "

Kit and Rose married in Scotland in 2018 - seven years after meeting on the set of the hit fantasy drama - and they are now parents to a three-year-old son and a 12-month-old daughter.

He went on to insist parenting has changed him a lot because it's forced him to become less "self-centred".

Kit explained: "I say this with love for myself – I'm quite self-centred. I think I'm a generous person and a loving person [too].

"But with kids, you just don't get to be self-centred. They strip you of it. And that’s an amazing gift. [Kids] are ultimately completely self-centred. They don't think about anyone else but themselves.

"So your self-centredness just has to park itself. And I think it's the great thing about parenting. At the heart of it, it's the most selfless thing you can do."