Craig McLachlan admitted he finds it hard to trust women during the gripping season premiere of SAS Australia on Monday. 

The Doctor Blake star, 58, fired up as he told host Ant Middleton about the heavy toll his indecent assault trial took on his career. 

In 2019, McLachlan was charged with seven counts of indecent assault, and six counts of common law assault, against four women who starred alongside him in the stage production of The Rocky Horror Show. In 2020 he was cleared of all charges.

'When I started on Neighbours, I was in people's lounge rooms night after night, day after day,' he told SAS producers.

'But there was something that happened about five years ago that was shocking for the public and shocking for me.

'Craig McLachlan, disgraced actor. Workplace bully, monster,' he continued. 

'So I'm here to exorcise some pretty extreme pain with some pretty extreme pain.'

McLachlan went on to admit he now suffers from 'extreme social anxiety'.

'I find it very difficult to trust situations where there are a lot of people, especially women,' he said. 

'I'm more anxious about being in a new group of people than I am about climbing up the side of a mountain. I know that sounds bizarre, but for me, I'm afraid it's true,' he added. 

He went on to admit that many people he once called friends had disappeared from his life. 

'People who only months before looked me in the eye and said you create the most wonderful work environments imaginable... abandonment, total abandonment,' he told Middleton.

'A tiny handful of courageous people I have friendships with over 30 years were always there, but the vast majority - gone.'

McLachlan, was charged with assault and indecent assault over complaints from female co-stars in a stage production of The Rocky Horror Show in Melbourne in 2014, during which he played the role of Frank-N-Furter.

He was later handed a $500,000 payout in April of this year, after he was acquitted of his assault charges.

He strongly denied the allegations against him.

Magistrate Belinda Wallington found him not guilty of 13 charges following a four-week contested hearing in the Victorian Melbourne Magistrates Court in December 2020.

SAS Australia continues Tuesday at 7.30pm on Channel Seven