Danny Dyer reveals moment he realised drugs were 'destroying his life'

Metro

16-06-2025

Actor Danny Dyer has opened up about the moment he realised that he needed to give up drugs.
The former EastEnders star, 47, has admitted that he could not work out how to put his trousers on following a night of partying, which caused him to change his ways.
Appearing on The Louis Theroux Podcast, the London-born star described the moment he knew he was 'destroying' his life after celebrating a win at the National Television Awards.
He recalled frankly: 'I just could not work out how to get my jeans on.
'I was just sitting on my en-suite toilet trying to work out what leg goes in what.'
He added to the host: 'I've sort of had many of them moments over the years of me being completely off my head.
'But that one really resonated with me.
'It was more because I looked up, my wife was just watching me, and she looked shattered, and she looked ill.'
Danny, who has spoken before about his drug abuse, said he knew it was having a bad effect on his wife, Jo, whom he wed in 2016, as well as their children, Dani, 28, Sunnie, 18, and son Arty, 11.
He added: 'It was just this moment; I thought, 'S**t, you're going to die. You're going to kill yourself. You're not happy. You're spanking all your money on drugs. You're destroying everything around you'.'
Indeed, at one point in their marriage, Jo took control of 'everything', previously 'kicking Danny out', which he acknowledged she had 'every right to do', given that he'd disappear on drug benders for days at a time.
Danny, who has been filming the second series of hit drama Rivals, has spoken on several occasions about his fame and how it's led to him making 'bad decisions'.
Having shot to fame in the 1999 film Human Traffic, Danny is now one of the most recognisable faces on British television.
However, he admits that there's a downside to glitzy parties, talk show appearances, and scooping trophies.
Speaking previously on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, he recounted going to nightclubs and watching DJ sets in his younger days, where fans would meet him, but, mostly, he'd 'just wave off balconies and get paid quite a lot of money to do it'.
Looking back, he said his days of 'hedonism' and 'mad behaviour' were 'awful'.
In 2013, things started looking up when he was offered the role of Mick Carter in EastEnders, although he later revealed that he was addicted to taking Valium and diazepam before scenes.
'I had bailiffs [coming round], no one would hire me, and the more I'm doing these club appearances, the more drugs I'm taking, and drink, so I'm in this weird spiral,' he recalled.
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Also in recent years, Danny has voiced his views on making cocaine use legal, claiming that banning it 'hasn't worked'.
At the time, he made a controversial point that cigarettes and alcohol kill more people than the class A drug.
Writing in his 2015 book Life Lessons from the East End, he said: 'Cocaine, it seems to me, is easier to get than a part for your boiler in this country.
'When they're detecting cocaine in tap water because of the number of people taking it, I'd say it was time for a different approach. Don't get me wrong, I think cocaine is dangerous. It killed 200-odd people in the UK last year.
'You can't dismiss that. It's a powerful, addictive drug which has the potential to f**k you up.'
He added: 'Banning drugs hasn't worked. Ain't it about time to try something different?'
Ultimately, Danny admitted himself to rehab in 2017 in Cape Town, having started to understand that his addiction affected so many people around him, not just himself.
While he was seeking treatment in South Africa, Danny reached a point of feeling like he'd 'had enough' and was contemplating leaving.
'Then they read a letter out from home, from my daughter Dani, and it made me sit back down in that seat,' he told presenter Lauren Laverne. More Trending
Without divulging details of the note written by his eldest child, Danny added that his then-20-year-old daughter helped him to realise how 'toxic' fame can be.
Alongside Rivals, Danny's recent work includes Mr Bigstuff, for which he won a Bafta earlier this year.
He also took the lead in Marching Powder, a film about a middle-aged man named Jack who is arrested for drug use before his life spirals out of control when he attempts to rebuild his marriage and relationships.
The Louis Theroux Podcast is available on Spotify and all podcast platforms.