S Club 7's Jon Lee, 43, shares 'traumatic' dating past that made him vow to give up on love - before joining Celebs Go Dating in 'now or never' move

Daily Mail​

18 hours ago

S Club 7 's Jon Lee has told of his 'traumatic' dating past that made him swear off looking for love - before joining Celebs Go Dating in a 'now or never' move.
The singer, 43, is set to appear in the E4 reality programme, which sees stars date members of the public, when it returns to our screens for series 14 later this year.
He will star alongside former Atomic Kitten singer Kerry Katona, 44, and The Chase's Mark 'The Beast' Labbett, 59, and former Love Islander Olivia Hawkins, 30.
They will be joined on the programme by Made In Chelsea 's Sam Prince, 28, Too Hot To Handle 's Louis Russell, 24, and Celebrity Big Brother star Donna Preston, 39.
The Reach For The Stars hitmaker will receive dating advice from the agency experts, Paul Carrick Brunson, Anna Williamson and Dr Tara Suwinyattichaiporn.
But Jon revealed to Daily Mail this followed a series of 'traumatic' dating experiences which saw him nearly swear off finding love for good.
He said: 'I thought [after] my last relationship, I was just like, "I'm done", I just really did not want to date at all.
'I thought I was very happy being single, I was single for six years, very, very happily single for six years.
'You know when it's just traumatic, you're just like, "I don't want to do that anymore", so yeah, it was kind of a big thing for me to come and do this.
'My mate said, "If you don't do this, you're going to end up single forever".'
His friend's advice gave him the courage he needed to make his last do or die attempt at romance on Celebs Go Dating.
'It was sort of like… what can really go wrong? So, I thought I might as well give it one last hurrah', Jon explained.
Getting to the point where he feels ready to look for love again has taken a lot of work.
The musician recently opened up publicly, for the first time, to Daily Mail, about his lifelong battle with addiction, which nearly killed him and erased a good chunk of his adult life.
Jon started out as a a child star on the West End aged 12, before being plucked from thousands of fresh-faced hopefuls to be part of the hugely successful S Club 7 when he was only 16.
He had dabbled in softer drugs during his pop star years and readily admitted he used alcohol to 'help me be the person I thought I had to be'.
But it was only in his thirties – when his pop career seemed like a distant dream, and he was pursuing a career in musical theatre – that he was introduced to crystal meth.
He found himself sectioned, having the neighbours call the police on him and intentionally overdosing on GHB in hopes of taking his own life.
The musician explained how bad it got at one point: 'I didn't even recognise myself at that time.
'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***?".
'I'd have a moment of lucidity, thinking: "I was a successful young man, I had a brilliant career, incredible life. What am I doing?"'
Jon has since recovered, with the help of his three rescue dogs, moving to Cornwall to live next door to his mother, sister and nieces and returning to perform S Club gigs with his former bandmate Jo O'Meara.
He also took a near three-and-a-half-year break 'just walking' across various European cities, completely cut off from his family and friends, funded by income from rental properties he bought in his S Club years.
Dating could only come after this kind of complete stabilisation, he has since confessed to Daily Mail, ahead of his appearance on Celebs Go Dating.
'When you go into a relationship or you start a relationship, you need to be 100 per cent comfortable and happy with who you are', he said.
'If you're going into it and you're kind of all over the place and you're looking for someone to fix you in some way, you're doomed, you have to be solid when you go into it.
'And someone needs to add your life not support it, because then if they're gone, then you're f***ed. And that was another reason I've been single for so long.'
Jon has long been out to his nearest and dearest but he only came out publicly after S Club split in 2010.
Does it feel intimidating to date so publicly, on a reality show, after feeling like had had to hide his true self for so many years?
'For me, it's a testament to how far I've come. So, I don't feel the need to be hidden or I don't feel the need to step back and hide myself', he said.
'And for me, that feels good, it's taken me years to get there but it feels good to be able to stand on TV as a very proud gay man and I'm happy with who I am.'
The singer was also very close with his father, who sadly passed away from motor neurone disease in 2019.
He had previously been relying heavily on alcohol and recreational drugs - but it was his father's diagnosis in 2014 that had sent Jon over the edge into harder usage.
Jon explained: 'My dad was always my champion, my dad was always my number one fan and my hero.
'So, he was always proud of me no matter what I did. But yeah, he would be very proud to see me, to see what I went through.'
He alluded to some even more breakthroughs in the course of the show's therapy sessions.
'I think everybody was able to really open up and be honest and maybe say things they hadn't ever said out loud before', he confessed.
'I think once you start, the floodgates open. And it just all kind of comes out.'
Jon seemed to hint at it helping him being able to start a new kind of romance.
'I'm in no rush to do anything, I'm happy to just take each day as it comes and see what happens and make sure whoever I'm with or not with or whatever, that we're sort of looking after each other', he said.
Too Hot To Handle's Louis, Jon's fellow contestant, who joined him in speaking to Daily Mail, agreed.
'They are there to help but they actually help, it kind of freaks me out that I've got my therapy through a show', he said.
Both looked to the future which will see Louis take part in the third series of Perfect Match, a Netflix dating show he filmed around a year ago.
It sees contestants from other reality shows on the streamer compete to get into couples - with successful pairings playing matchmaker for the other participants.
It seems Louis' efforts were not successful, given his participation in Celebs Go Dating, filmed earlier this year.
'I'm excited for it but it's a messy show. The thing is, it's annoying because how I was there to how I am now is so different', he explained.
'It's definitely a free for all. I feel with Too Hot, they angle it a bit but with this one, it was to the point where we were looking at the producers like, "Are you gonna chime in?"
'With Too Hot, they're like, "Oh yeah, you can't say that", or, "Maybe say this".'
He added: 'There's a way you can edit me bad but there's no way that you can edit me to a point where I look like a d***head…
'There were some questionable things. There's a lot of three way kissing in times there shouldn't be three-way kissing.'
Daily Mail understands he has also been linked to his Celebs co-star Olivia since filming earlier this year, during which they were 'all over each other'.
Louis told Daily Mail: 'Love is in the air. Does it disperse? Maybe. You'll have to wait and see.'
Meanwhile, Jon mentioned 'potentially' another tour with S Club, following their 25th anniversary event in 2023.
He also teased a return to EastEnders, after he played Josh Saunders nearly 30 years ago, from November 1997 to April 1998.
Nigel Bates (Paul Bradley), the father of Josh's girlfriend Clare (Gemma Bissix), and his character's mother Julie Haye (Karen Henthorn) have both recently returned to the BBC soap.
Jon said, 'I haven't got the call yet', but when asked how he would answer, he responded jokingly: 'How much?'