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Robert Herjavec, the Shark Tank investor, separated from his wife Diane Plese almost a decade ago. He has revealed that it was not a happy time. In an interview with People, Herjavec discussed feeling suicidal after the separation. He says he wanted to jump off the balcony of his Toronto hotel room after he and his wife had filed for separation.
Robert Herjavec shares that he was at rock bottom but soon managed to recover from the situation after meeting his pastor, who gave him hope and a new purpose in life. He was married to Diane for 24 years and they have three kids together.
However, following the split with Diane, his children stopped talking to him. Discussing his marriage and everything that happened, Robert says:
"It's been a terribly difficult year. We were great parents and a great team, but over time we drifted apart."
Shark Tank's Robert Herjavec talks about his mental state after the separation
Robert Herjavec, the multi-millionaire investor on Shark Tank, talked about his mental state after he had separated from Diane. He said it made him feel like ending his life.
The situation that pushed him over the edge was how his kids stopped speaking to him. He said it was the last straw that made him want to jump off the balcony. Herjavec explained:
"Everyone has their kryptonite. For me, it was my kids. It took me to a place I never thought I would go."
The Shark Tank investor then proceeded to talk about his pastor and how he was the one who helped me find "hope" in his life. The pastor navigated him toward Seattle's Union Gospel Mission. This is an innovative shelter for homeless folks who do not have enough financial backup.
Robert Herjavec took a flight to Seattle and visited the shelter's locations. The volunteers advised him to work at the soup kitchen. Talking about his experience at the place, he says that no one was able to recognize him. Rather, people thought he was a "recovering addict."
As he spent days serving the mission, things started to look better for him. His pain was replaced by the "suffering" of the individuals he came across at the shelter.
The work kept him engaged and the Shark Tank investor would go out on rescue missions even late at night and provide financial support to people who had nothing and weren't even able to make it to the shelter. Robert Herjavec revealed that he even donated socks to the people on the street.
He finally left Seattle after two weeks and described it as a humbling experience. He says that he didn't know how to be compassionate before and felt like he would be deemed "weak" doing so.
But the shelter experience changed everything for him. He now started looking for new experiences to engage his mind somewhere else, and this was when the opportunity to be on Dancing with the Stars (DWTS) came to him. He explained that he started watching the show when his mother was in the hospital and battling cancer.
The Shark Tank investor says he was scared to start this new venture because it was different from anything that he had ever done. Concluding, Robert asserts that all of these experiences are the ones that made him take his mind off the split and his suicidal thoughts.
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Shark Tank Season 16 episodes are released on ABC at 8 p.m. ET every Friday. They are later available on Hulu.
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