Ryan Sutter, known for starring on with , has gotten candid about .
The 51-year-old former star said he now understands why people with chronic illness become suicidal.
'It's the first time I've ever sympathized with suicide,' he told People magazine about dealing with the condition. Sutter was diagnosed in 2020 and announced it publicly in 2021.
He clarified, 'I was never like, "I need to go commit suicide," but I understood that people get to this level of frustration where they just feel like they're going to feel like this for the rest of their lives, or be a burden on everybody that they're around.'
The firefighter added, 'You think, I don't know what my purpose in life is, and if there is no purpose to it, if it's just getting up every day and feeling like this...
'It really hurts me to think that so many people are in that kind of pain and don't think they'll ever get out of it.'
Ryan Sutter, known for starring on The Bachelorette with wife Trista Sutter, has gotten candid about his Lyme disease battle; pictured in 2019
While Sutter is feeling much better now, the 51-year-old former reality TV star said he understands why people with chronic illness become suicidal
Sutter is feeling good these days, with his Lyme disease having gotten to a manageable point.
'I'm at a pretty good place. I think the majority of my days are good, with a few bad ones sprinkled in there,' he shared.
Their love story began on the first season of the series, where Trista, a runner-up on the inaugural season of The Bachelor, captured hearts.
Sutter proposed during the season finale, and the pair tied the knot on December 6, 2003 in a televised ABC special.
The network reportedly paid $1 million to air the wedding — on top of covering the costs of the nuptials.
Now the couple is focused on their health, with Trista taking to Instagram this week to urge her followers to get preventative MRI scans.
'When you’ve been through the kind of medical mysteries that Ryan and I have been through with his Lyme disease and my seizure, we are so grateful for the opportunity to be proactive about our health with @prenuvo,' she wrote about their partnership with the company.
