{"id":27859,"date":"2026-08-04T23:30:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T18:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=27859"},"modified":"2026-08-04T23:30:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T18:30:52","slug":"game-of-thrones-author-george-r-r-martin-opens-up-about-experiencing-depression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=27859","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Game of Thrones\u2019 author George R. R. Martin opens up about experiencing depression"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit_1500w\/rockcms\/2025-05\/250530-George-R-R-Martin-ew-1211p-5c3de3.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p id=\"anchor-f45fe5\" class=\"body-graf\">George R. R. Martin, author of the wildly popular \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d book series, shared that he\u2019s pulled back from updating  fans via his blog as he \u201cbattled sadness and depression.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-6e4ca2\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cThis year has been\u2026 stressful, to say the least,\u201d Martin wrote in a blog post published this week, titled <a href=\"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/2026\/08\/03\/better-late-than-never\/\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cBetter Late Than Never.<\/a>\u201d  \u201cSo much has been happening, it\u2019s been overwhelming. Some great things, exciting things. Dreams coming true. But there have been nightmares too. I have lost friends. Battled sadness and depression.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-778eb7\" class=\"body-graf\">The entry marked Martin\u2019s return to blogging since since Feb. 19. In his latest post, he thanked his \u201cgreat staff of assistants,\u201d who he said have worked tirelessly to keep him from \u201cfalling further and further behind.\u201d <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-fee7a1\" class=\"body-graf\">In recent years, the fantasy author has been called out by readers who complain about the delayed publication of the sixth \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d book, \u201cThe Winds of Winter.\u201d <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-58a48b\" class=\"body-graf\">Martin <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/pop-culture\/pop-culture-news\/george-rr-martin-says-will-never-finish-book-game-thrones-series-rcna209979\" target=\"_blank\">addressed the criticism last year<\/a>, writing in a May 2025 post that he \u201cought to get some other writer to pinch hit for me\u2026 I am going to die soon anyway, because I am so old. I lost all interest in \u2018A Song of Ice and Fire\u2019 decades ago. I don\u2019t give a s&#8212; about writing any longer, I just sit around and spend my money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-083e30\" class=\"body-graf\">In Monday\u2019s post, Martin referenced his age again, writing, \u201cThe worst may be yet to come. I turned seventy-seven last September, and I tell you, getting old is no fun.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-fa889c\" class=\"body-graf\">He told fans that the combination of age and depression could mean his \u201cposts are likely to [be] short and rushed\u201d in the immediate future, adding that his \u201cminions\u201d may be helping him more.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-cf090a\" class=\"body-graf\">But 2026 hasn\u2019t been all sadness for the author, he said. In his post, he highlighted the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.televisionacademy.com\/shows\/a-knight-of-the-seven-kingdoms\" target=\"_blank\"> nine Emmy nominations bestowed<\/a> on his \u201cA Knight of the Seven Kingdoms\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hbomax.com\/shows\/knight-of-the-seven-kingdoms\/3507a932-eace-46ea-bfe1-638ae819fa12\" target=\"_blank\">on HBO Max.<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-166436\" class=\"body-graf\">Martin <a href=\"https:\/\/www.televisionacademy.com\/bios\/george-rr-martin\" target=\"_blank\">has won four Emmys<\/a>, all as co-executive producer for \u201cGame of Thrones.\u201d The show won Emmys for outstanding drama series in 2019, 2018, 2016 and 2015.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-c74d1b\" class=\"body-graf\">This year\u2019s awards show, which will air on NBC, takes place on Sept. 14 in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-02901e\" class=\"endmark body-graf\">\u201cI hope to attend\u2026\u201d Martin wrote, \u201cbut that depends on\u2026 well, on a lot of things.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>George R. R. Martin, author of the wildly popular \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d book series, shared that he\u2019s pulled back from updating fans via his blog as he \u201cbattled sadness and depression.\u201d \u201cThis year has been\u2026 stressful, to say the least,\u201d Martin wrote in a blog post published this week, titled \u201cBetter Late Than Never.\u201d \u201cSo&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_nbcnews-fp-1200-630,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2025-05\/250530-George-R-R-Martin-ew-1211p-5c3de3.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}