Darren Hayes, one-half of the popular Australian pop group Savage Garden, is opening up about a terrible accident that happened to him earlier this year.
Hayes, 53, had to be hospitalized back in the spring after falling and breaking his jaw.
“In March, I went to get out of bed one day, and I collapsed three times in a period of seven minutes,” he recently told People. “I was in so much pain. What I didn’t realize was that I’d snapped my jaw in half. I had broken 17 teeth.”
Hayes told the news outlet that he remembers trying to stand up and making it to the bathroom before falling face-down onto the floor.
“It was like one of those stress dreams we have where we lose teeth,” he said. “I was spitting teeth out, still in denial about what had happened to me, and thought, ‘Oh, my boyfriend’s coming home from the gym in 10 minutes. I look terrible. Let me just tidy up.’”
Hayes initally broke the news to fans in April on social media, sharing a photo of himself with visible swelling and bruises.
While doctors weren’t sure what caused Hayes to fall, he suspects it was likely due to stress as his mother had died in January, the same week he discovered his estranged father had also passed away.
This sad news came on the heels of Hayes divorcing his husband of 17 years, Richard Cullen, in 2022.
“Divorce is horrific. I don’t care what anyone has to say. It’s horrific. You feel like a failure, and then to lose that one rock in my life that had always been my mother, I think it was just a last straw for me,” he said to People. “It’s no wonder that my body just sort of said, ‘Time out.’”
Savage Garden is known for such hits as “I Want You,” “Truly Madly Deeply” and “I Knew I Loved You.” The group disbanded at the end of 2001. Hayes has gone on to perform as a solo artist. His last album, “Homosexual,” was released in 2022.