Jack Fincham has opened up about his drug addiction for the first time in a heartbreaking new interview.
The reality star shot to fame on Love Island back in 2018, which he won with his then-girlfriend Dani Dyer.
Just two years later, Jack found himself spiralling out of control, which lead to his mother tricking him into entering rehab in November 2020.
Speaking to The Sun, Jack revealed he was using class A drugs and prescription medication like xanax and diazepam daily to cope with his anxiety.
The 32-year-old recalled: “The night before I went to rehab, I’d been out and taken a load of sleeping and anti-anxiety tablets. I didn’t know who I was or what I was doing. I didn’t even know I was going to rehab.
“My mum and my agent had been talking about me, knowing something was really wrong. I came down into the kitchen and my mum told me to pack a bag. She said ‘you can go away for a little while if you want?’
“This goes to show the state I was in because you’d think I would have questioned it, but I said ‘oh, alright then’, without even knowing where I was going.”
“I got in the car with my agent and I still wasn’t asking where he was taking me. I was just out of it and didn’t have any idea what was going on.
“We drove to rehab and when we arrived he said ‘this is where you’re going’, but he didn’t say the word ‘rehab’ and so off I went. I got in there and then realised ‘s*** I’m not coming out of here now’.
“I started kicking off, shouting ‘I don’t need to be here, I’m not like that, I don’t have a problem’.”
Jack, who has been sober since August of this year, continued: “Death was on the cards for me, it was imminent. If I had carried on how I was, even up to six months ago, I would definitely be dead. Without a shadow of a doubt.”
“It was a vicious cycle of waking up with crippling anxiety and feeling like I didn’t want to be here anymore.”
“I thought I’d rather be dead than feel like this. I take loads and loads of diazepam to literally escape the world and calm my brain down.
“You don’t realise how physically addicted you get to stuff like xanax and diazepam. They ruined me. They absolutely ruined me. Every time I’d try to stop I’d have fits, hallucinations and be awake for days and days and days on end.
“With drugs like cocaine, I always thought ‘I only do it on weekends, I don’t have a problem’.
“So in rehab sat across from heroin addicts, it didn’t work because I went in with the attitude of ‘I’m not as bad as them’. I’d come out and be good for a while and then I’d go downhill again.”
Jack ended up relapsing just months after he left rehab at the end of 2020.
Following that, the reality star continued to lose TV work because of his addiction, and had numerous brushes with the law.
Just last month, he was handed a 36-month driving ban and given 60 hours’ community service – after admitting to two counts of drug-driving following an incident in March 2023.Â
In August of this year, Jack was arrested on suspicion of drug-driving again, for which investigations are ongoing.
The former Love Island winner has been sober ever since, and said his conviction in October helped him turn a corner.
“This has made me realise that I have to take responsibility for my actions,” he said. “I was carrying on with the same lifestyle after the arrest in March, but now it’s hit home.”
“I’m glad it’s happened. That’s how life is, if you make a mistake, you have to pay for it. I deserve to have a driving ban and be doing community service.
“I had no respect for myself and was selfish about others. I didn’t care what happened to me in the frame of my mind I was in. I wasn’t thinking about what harm I could do to myself or how I could hurt others.”
“This isn’t about wanting people to feel sorry for me. It’s embarrassing enough as it is. This is more about explaining I have been going through a problem and I still am. I’ll always have to work on this problem.
“I’m not saying ‘poor me, poor me’. Getting behind the wheel of the car when you’ve taken drugs is not acceptable – but the real turning point was getting in trouble with the police and realising that I could have killed myself or someone else in that car.”
“Everything that’s happened is now part of my story. I believe going through all this has made me stronger.
“This time round is different and I really have made a conscious decision to change my life and be the best person I can be. I ain’t going to let addiction beat me, I won’t,” he added.
