Jason Donovan, the star of the Aussie, has been open about a once hard-partying lifestyle, revealing shockingly that his cocaine binges could last up to six days at one point during the 1990s.
At the height of his Neighbours fame, 80s heartthrob Jason Donovan was the picture of the clean-cut boy next door.
But as the soap legend has revealed, by the 90s he was fighting cocaine addiction – and at one point, was snorting up to three grammes of the drug a day – with binges that could last up to six days.
The Australian star, 57, opened up about his darkest days on Jamie Laing’s Great Company podcast – and as he spoke about that drug-fuelled chapter said, “I got vilified in the 90s for announcing on a news show once that, ‘why did I take drugs?’ because I liked them, which was the truth at the time.”
READ MORE: ‘Aldi refused to sell me popcorn for reason you’d least expect’
Host Jamie, who welcomed baby boy Ziggy with wife Sophie Haboo earlier this month, added: “You said this, at that period of your life, you were consuming three grammes of cocaine a day. “You had the freedom and ability to do it. You meet your wife and your kid is born, what is that moment that you go, ‘I’m not doing this’.”
The singer and musical theatre star said, “Yes, there were days, weekends that would begin on Thursday and sometimes not end until the following Tuesday or whatever. ” Incredibly, he took three grams of cocaine a day.
“But it was a binge, not a consistent situation in the vein of heroin,” she continued. At some point, your body must shut down, particularly if you take cocaine. He continued, “I’ll also assert that because I kept working, I was able to shut down.”
Jamie then responded, “I just did, I could just do that,” and Jason responded, “How did you balance that?” I’m a bit of an all-or-nothing kind of guy and quite disciplined. I have spent the majority of my life working out, and that’s what knocks on your door.
You’ve done your big three-day or something, and you walk out and feel great and then go see Jason, that’s how you can feel if you don’t get back on it again. “Just go to the gym, have a steam, have a swim, and walk out.”
He continued, “Come on, let’s do a cheeky one, let’s blow it all up again,” and that you would feel good for two days until that little demon would appear and vanish. That was the issue.
Now 20 years clean, Jason confessed that he called his hard-partying lifestyle a day as it had become ‘boring’ – and he realised all he was doing was ‘chasing his own tail’ – as he detailed the worst aspects of his former coke habit.
When the paranoia begins to set in, especially with cocaine, 24 hours later, you mistakenly believe the MI5 are hiding out. The good news is that I haven’t done anything in 20 years and now know what I don’t want to.
And Jason told Jamie what inspired him to turn his life around was meeting his future wife, Angela Malloch in 1998, when she was stage manager for a musical he was starring in, who eventually gave him an ultimatum – his party lifestyle or her..
Meeting my wife was the “catalyst of change.” She didn’t alter me, but I did so at that time. He explained the birth of Jemma and the realization that I could leave now. “The body needed to repair when I was still in my 30s.” I hadn’t blown out, so there was still time to get back.
The couple, who had three children together, Jemma, Zac, and Molly, later tied the knot in 2008 and were able to survive those challenging circumstances.
*Frank provides unrestricted information on drugs and addiction (email frank@talktofrank.com, call 82111, or text frank@talktofrank.com, call 0300 123 6600), or the NHS has information on how to get help.
