Gay S Club star reveals crystal meth addiction: ‘I’m not sure how I’m still here’
S Club star Jon Lee has opened up about his past addiction struggles. (Getty)
S Club star Jon Lee has opened up about his past addiction struggles. (Getty)
Gay S Club star Jon Lee has revealed that he has struggled with addiction to crystal meth.
Speaking to the MailOnline, Lee reflected on how, at the height of band’s success in the early noughties, when they were known as S Club 7, he was spending £250 (in the region of $440 at the time) a week on the recreational drug – more than his was laying out for his mortgage.
“I didn’t even recognise myself at that time,” he said. “Sometimes, in the midst of one of the psychotic episodes, where I’d be smashing my flat up with a hammer, I’d catch sight of myself in the mirror and say: ‘What the f**k?’
“I’m not sure how I’m still here.”
Hallucinations caused by the drug led to Lee becoming increasingly paranoid, and he was sectioned in 2019.
He acknowledged that he was a “danger to [himself]” and expressed regret at putting his family through such an ordeal. The loss of his dad to motor neurone disease in 2014 may have spurred on his drug use, he added.
In an effort to get clean three years ago, he decided to travel and met a rescue dog in India that gave him a new sense of purpose. Upon returning to the UK in 2022, he established three rescue centres. He moved next door to his mum and sister in Cornwall and earlier this year appeared on Celebs Go Dating, where he met Jordan Fairhurst.
In May 2023, S Club members Lee, Tina Barrett, Bradley McIntosh, Jo O’Meara and Rachel Stevens, announced a rebrand ahead of their reunion tour, following the death of Paul Cattermole and Hannah Spearritt’s departure from the line-up.
Figures from the 2005 National Gay Men’s Sex Survey revealed that only a small number of gay men in the UK had used crystal meth in the previous 12 months.
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