Online therapy firm teams up with Michael Phelps to break the stigma of mental illness

The Olympic gold medalist swimmer is the new face of Talkspace, a startup that makes therapy affordable and accessible to millions of people.

On the surface, Michael Phelps had the kind of life we could only dream of. As the most decorated swimmerin history, the Baltimore native had 28 Olympic medals to his name before he even turned 30. He’d broken basically every world record in swimming ever recorded, and in four Olympic games, he reigned as the most successful athlete to compete.

But the side of Phelps most people never saw – and one he had tried mightily to conceal – was his struggle with mental illness. In January, the 32-year-old revealed that he suffered from both ADHD and depression, and that after the 2012 Olympics, he actually contemplated suicide.

“Throughout my career, I struggled with depression and anxiety at various times, and I found it so difficult to get the help I needed,” said Phelps.