Jack Fincham has revealed how he blew £1million on gambling as he battled drink and drug addictions for 14 years in a new interview on This Morning on Wednesday.
The TV personality, 32, laid everything bare as he candidly admitted he didn’t have ‘any regard for himself’ and would often put himself in danger by driving recklessly.
Jack soared to fame after winning Love Island in 2018 with then-girlfriend Dani Dyer. But while her career has gone from strength-to-strength, Jack’s life hasn’t quite followed on the same successful path.
He was recently bailed from jail over his dog attacking a runner and has since opened up on how his life has spiralled due to his addictions, which at one point saw him spent a whopping £40,000 in one day on online Blackjack.
Opening up in his first TV appearance since making the shocking admissions, Jack told hosts Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard how he blew the cash and lifted the lid on how his drug, alcohol and gambling addictions took him down a dark path.
The reality star, who has been sober since Christmas Day, said: ‘It was awful. It always started out like you just have a drink then you end up taking other drugs, and then because you’ve taken so many of those I’d take others to go to sleep.
Jack Fincham has revealed how he blew £1million on gambling as he battled drink and drug addictions for 14 years in a new interview on This Morning
The TV personality, 32, laid everything bare as he candidly admitted he didn’t have ‘any regard for himself’ and would often put himself in danger by driving recklessly
‘It’s a cycle, you’re alright for a few days. That’s why I always thought it wasn’t a problem because I’d have a few days off in between. But I then discovered another drug, an anti-anxiety drug and I became physically addicted to it and went to rehab.
‘My family and my relationship with Chloe, they are all so supportive but how many more times can they say it’s okay now we’ll get through this? It got to the point where there was nothing to salvage.’
He continued:’I would be drinking and I wouldn’t be in my right mind so I convinced myself, I’ll go and win £100,000 today on Blackjack today – it was never going to happen.
‘This was only ever when I was intoxicated. I was doing £40,000 days, £5,000 hands on Blackjack. Who did I think I was?’
The reality star revealed: ‘I’ve wasted very close to £1million. It’s not even just that. The behaviour that I was doing, I was driving recklessly, having no regard for myself.
‘I didn’t really care about myself. I’d end up crashing cars and then paying to ge tthem fixed. It was all my fault, I hold my hands up to all of this. I am dealing with the consequences and now I want to set it straight.’
Jack added: ‘Before, things would go wrong or something bad would happen and I couldn’t handle it. I was always off drinking and taking drugs, it was masking- not dealing with the issues and problems that I had head on.
‘I thought I didn’t have a problem. From the age of 18 this has been an ongoing issue but unfortunately now since being on TV those mistakes are now public. They’re not stuff that you can deal with behind closed doors.
‘It’s stuff that I’ve done that now everyone knows about. It’s not something I could keep back.’
Opening up in his first TV appearance since making the shocking admissions, Jack told hosts Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard how he blew the cash and lifted the lid on how his drug, alcohol and gambling addictions took him down a dark path
Jack soared to fame after winning Love Island in 2018 with then-girlfriend Dani Dyer
He explained that whether he became famous or not, he would still have struggled with these issues.
He told the presenters: ‘No matter how I ended up with money, this would have happened regardless, no matter what the scenario was.
‘Having money in abundance quite quickly accelerated it but this would have happened anyway. The amount of opportunities that I’ve messed up due to this but then would not confront it and not actually say I’ve got a problem here.
‘I would go onto the next thing, let someone down and burn some bridges. But I didn’t want to burn those bridges. All of a sudden, there’s no one left to fall back on. There was nothing more to salvage.’
Jack explained that he’s lost countless opportunities due to ‘not turning up’ for booked appearances and being ‘unreliable’.
He confessed: ‘I even used to come up here all the time and do the compeтιтions with Andi Peters and I loved it. It was amazing but unfortunately due to me not turning up for things and being unreliable, those opportunities went.
‘I wasn’t able to confront these issues head on but now I feel like I am in a place to do this.’
When Cat quizzed on why Jack is coming forward to talk about these issues now, the reality star said he wants to ‘hold himself accountable’.
The reality star, who has been sober since Christmas Day, said: ‘It was awful. It always started out like you just have a drink then you end up taking other drugs’
He recalled: ‘There’s been a few different tiimes that I would say I’m changing now, I’m really sorry for doing this, but I had no real intention of changing because I hadn’t been dealing with the issues.’
Jack continued: ‘I hold my hands up, I did mistakes I did have these problems, I was taking drugs, I was letting people down.
‘But let’s change the narrative now and use that platform so people can see if he can do it, if he can have all these opportunities, if he can have all this money, lose it all down to what he was doing and turn it around, why can’t I?
‘There’s a lot of eyes on it and I want it to be something positive now. I’m bored of myself keep saying I’m sorry and making the same mistake over and over again, that’s what addiction is. It’s like insanity.