Rivals star Alex Hassell reflects on 'devastating' 10-year stretch of his career as he reveals he has been in therapy for a long time due to a 'sense of failure'

He plays the ruthless Rupert Campbell Black in the Disney+ hit Rivals. 

However, in real life Alex Hassell couldn't be further from the lothario retired Olympian show jumper as he reflected on a 'devastating' 10-year stretch of his career. 

The actor, 46, admitted he struggled, and still does struggle, with feelings of failure and self-worth while he was trying to hit the big time. 

Revealing he has been in therapy for a long time he confessed: 'I really thought there was something deficient in me, and I couldn’t understand why. Obviously you go, "Well, it’s because I’m s---. I’m not good enough..."' 

Considering giving up on his dreams he continued: 'I was like, this hurts too much. That was really hard. And then, for whatever reason, things picked up. But that’s why playing Rupert is so complicated: I took that sense of failure with me.'

Opening up about how therapy has helped him, he explained that the thing he struggles with the most is his sense of self-worth. 

He told The Telegraph: 'Trust in, like… am I want-able? Thankfully, my therapist is really great, and I have an absolutely amazing wife who I know, in all ways, wants me. I also have a wider family who I feel very supported by. But you just pick up this s--- from somewhere, don’t you?'

Alex added that he can't believe he is now playing someone like Rupert, as he explained the character has helped him find his way back to himself.

Ahead of the new series, Alex has also revealed the brutal advice Jilly Cooper gave him during filming with his love interest Bella Maclean in his latest interview with the Radio Times.

While he is known for his womanising ways, Bella's character Taggie can't help but fall for the retired Olympian show jumper as their love story becomes complicated.

Alex has shared how Jilly didn't want Alex to hold back and urged him to 'break her like a horse'. 

In the first season he puts his hands up Taggie's skirt at a dinner party before forcing her to dance. 

He told the magazine: 'For a while, I was trying to make him likeable. When he danced with Taggie, I felt he would be tacitly apologising to her, but Jilly said to me, "No, he grabs her and tries to break her like a young horse". I was like, "Woah!"'

The son of a vicar and nurse, Alex explained how he went to a comprehensive school and never thought he could 'exude what Rupert has'. 

'I was fearful of playing Rupert because I had an inherent feeling of what a man should be, and I didn’t think I was capable of playing that alpha, macho lothario.'

Despite his doubts, the actor's portrayal of the Tory member in the hit series is widely considered a career-defining breakthrough for him.

He also received praise from Jilly herself, before her passing in October 2025.

On meeting the beloved author, he said: 'I'm so glad to have met her and to have spent time with her and to be told explicitly by her that she was really proud of what I was doing.'

Alex added that that was his final conversation with the star and that it's really 'moving to remember'.

Rivals returns on November 11 for the final episodes in its second series, and the residents of Rutshire are seeing out the season in style and scandal. 

A new trailer released last month teases episodes 7-12, which will pick up after the mid-series finale and the tragic death of Monica Baddingham (Claire Rushbrook).

Lady Monica's husband Tony (David Tennant) is far from the grief-stricken widower, as the trailer shows the furious TV boss amping up his franchise war against Declan O'Hara (Aidan Turner).

'Your wife died in my arms, broken by your games,' Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell) tells him, only for Lord Tony, shotgun in hand, to declare 'well she's not here anymore. I've got nothing left to do but fight.'

Elsewhere, the country set's slowest burning love affair between Taggie (Bella Maclean) and Rupert teases a happy ending at least, as the trailer concludes with the two leaning in for a firework night kiss.

The first three episodes of six will drop on November 11, with weekly releases of the remaining three episodes following after.