Former EastEnders star John Partridge has spoken about how signing up for MasterChef helped him beat his cocaine habit.
The actor was a contestant on Celebrity MasterChef back in 2018, and went on to win the series.
Since then, John has joined the culinary world with the release of his own cookbook last year.
However, in a new interview with The Mirror, John revealed that things had taken a dark turn in his personal life before he joined the BBC reality show.
John explained how cooking became a distraction after he called his agent to get him a spot on MasterChef, having stopped going to Narcotics Anonymous meetings.
“Every day for the next three weeks I’d go to the supermarket instead of going to NA,” John said.
“When it came to that time in the evening – the witching hour – when my husband, Jon, would go to work and I’d be here alone I’d start to get twitchy fingers. So, I’d buy random ingredients and cook. That was how it started.”
He added: “I wasn’t a big drinker, I was a big snorter, yeah, that was my thing. The booze was really secondary, the coke was the thing that was my go to.”
After being crowned winner of Celebrity MasterChef, John revealed back in 2018: “My life was rapidly spinning out of control with substance abuse and alcohol.
“I would get up and go to the supermarket, I would buy groceries and I would stand here and cook all day. So I didn’t have a minute in the day to think about something else
“That’s what cooking did for me. I’ve been clean for seven months, sober 185 days and it’s amazing.”
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