In an interview with Variety, Steve Burns spoke about his sudden departure from the Nickelodeon show in 2002.
“I don’t know it yet, but I’m the happiest depressed person in North America,” he says. “I have struggled with severe clinical depression while I have been on this show. My work is filled with joy and wonder every moment, and it becomes impossible.” The former Brooklyn star, who now lives in an undisclosed area of the Catskill Mountains, said he left the city in search of a more peaceful living environment.
“I’m often alone here, but I’m very rarely lonely,” Steve told the publication.
“There is more of me to share here than in New York. I divert all stimuli all the time.”
“I’ve never enjoyed being Steve more than I do now,” he says. After a long reset, Burns will finally return for the film version of Blue’s Big City Adventure event, which premiere November 18 on Paramount+. In the past, the TV personality has expressed frustration with her baldness and not wanting to wear a wig on the show. Now he is bald and “could wear a raincoat,” he says of his current freedom. “It’s like Grover-meets-Culumbo—clown character. It’s really liberating.”
Burns also share how his father’s death in 2015 put life after a significant loss in perspective. “I take care of him when he was dying of cancer and it changed me,” he said. “It makes me think about things I don’t think about, like the legacy and the value of the things we leave behind.”
“It forced me to reevaluate my mental health and take it more seriously,” he added. “New York has never been better for my mental health.”