I blew £1m on drugs, booze & bets including £40k in a day… I had the world at my feet & ruined it says Jack Fincham

LOVE Island star Jack Fincham says he feels “ashamed” of himself after admitting he blew his £1million TV fortune on drugs, booze and gambling.

The reality star, 33, spent £40,000 in one day on blackjack online and sat in bed alone taking cocaine, adding: “I had the world at my feet and I screwed it up.”

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He reached rock bottom last year when he jumped off a hotel balcony in a suicide bid.

Last week, he faced prison after pleading guilty to having a dangerous dog while on a suspended sentence for a drug-driving offence.

Now Jack, who was propelled into stardom when he won the ITV dating show with Dani Dyer in 2018, says: “I can’t say Love Island ruined my life — I did that myself. I, Jack Fincham, am an addict.

“I feel like a failure, utterly mortified by the things I have done. I had the world at my feet and I screwed it up.

“Embarrassed just doesn’t touch it. It is hideous. I cry when I think about how I’ve let people down.

“I have blown more than a million pounds thanks to drugs, booze and gambling.

“Drugs helped my relationship with Dani fail. I was absent, my priorities were wrong, I wasn’t a great boyfriend. I am determined to change my future.

“There’s times I wish I’d never been in the public eye and just stayed exactly as I was. Destruction was always in me, but fame and money made it happen quicker.”

Jack finally started to turn his life around at the end of December.

Now he is looking to the future with his partner, Towie star Chloe Brockett, 24.

He said: “My last drink was Christmas Day — just two Desperados. At New Year there was no drugs or booze for the first time in my adult life. That feels amazing.

“We just watched the fireworks together and knew 2025 would be different. I’ve been to rehab before — because I was forced to — but  I didn’t actually think I was an addict. Now I’m not a kid, I need to change before it’s too late. If I don’t, I could die.”

He nearly did last summer when a break with Chloe in a West Midlands country hotel ended badly.

Jack explained: “I was in the hotel room and went on IMDB [a TV and film database], and I was like, ‘S***, I’ve done 30 TV shows’. I thought, ‘I’ve got nothing to show for this, I have messed up my life’.

“I’d had the world at my feet, but the addictions destroyed everything.

“My followers had gone from 2.6million to 1.6million. Imagine lining up a million people who just don’t like you any more — it’s a horrible feeling.

“I ordered room service — sambucas, Prosecco, five vodkas at a time. Bang, bang, bang, done.

“I started gambling on my phone, convinced I was going to win hundreds of thousands of pounds. But then I lost my last penny — or thought I had. I was that off my head I hadn’t pressed the button. But I thought I had. I was saying, ‘I don’t want to be here any more, I’ve had enough. I am a f***ing loser’.

“Chloe went downstairs and told them to stop serving me.

“She asked them to call an ambulance because she was scared I was going to kill myself.”

While she was away, Jack threw himself over the hotel balcony.

He went on: “I remember weighing up the options, thinking, ‘I’ve nothing left to give here. Not a penny to my name. Nothing is salvageable’.

I could do £800 of cocaine on a night out. I’d even sat in bed with a pile next to me just sniffing it on my own

Jack Fincham

“We were in a hillside lodge and I jumped. If I’d have dived at a different angle, I may not be here today. That is scary.”

Cops took him away for his own safety while he sobered up.

He said: “My ankle was purple and I couldn’t walk for weeks. When I saw how Liam Payne passed away, I realised it could have been me.”

Jack and Chloe have been together since 2019, but it was in 2020 that he was forced into rehab by his mum for an addiction to anti-anxiety drug Xanax.

Jack explained: “I took it after cocaine to help me sleep.   I could do £800 of cocaine on a night out. I’d even sat in bed with a pile next to me just sniffing it on my own.

“Then I started to take Xanax without the coke, sometimes ten pills a day.”

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He quit it after rehab, but last summer a packet he had hidden during the height of his addiction dropped out of a cupboard.

As he remembers that moment, he shakes his head in disgust and points to the living room floor in his home in Grays, Essex, saying: “It dropped on the floor just there. I tried not to even look at it. I kept thinking, ‘I shouldn’t take these’ — then, ‘Maybe just one to help me sleep?’. I bought more online.

“My face changed, I was grey, my brain was half asleep and half awake. I wasn’t in control.

“I’d find a pub at 10am and convince them to let me in.”

Chloe intervened, threw the pills away and said she would leave him if he ordered any more.

Fighting back tears, Jack details his desperation to find more.

I ended up in psychosis because I hadn’t slept. My body felt  possessed. One night I woke up, went outside into someone’s driveway and took a kid’s trike

Jack Fincham

He said: “I searched every single pocket. I crawled on my hands and knees on the floor, under furniture, everywhere. They’re more addictive than heroin. I had withdrawal seizures, my body was jolting, insomnia that went on for days.

“I ended up in psychosis because I hadn’t slept. My body felt possessed. One night I woke up, went outside into someone’s driveway and took a kid’s trike.

“I was riding it on the road and the police detained me because they realised I needed help.

“I locked myself away for two days watching Alan Partridge and The Office over and over, comforted I finally knew the words.”

Over the years Jack made TV appearances while high — or withdrawing.

He said: “I saw an episode of Dinner Date the other day and realised how dreadfully unwell I was. I looked awful. I don’t know what I was even doing on TV.”

An addiction to gambling went hand-in-hand. Jack said: “I started playing blackjack in 2021, £5,000 hands. I remember once dropping Chloe off at Towie and during the 40-minute cab home I blew £7,000.

“Sometimes I got up to £40,000 winnings, but the next day I’d have £2,000 left and think, ‘S***’, I need to pay the rent’.”

His addictions have led to his two arrests for drug-driving.

Last March, he was spared prison and given a suspended sentence instead.

Because of this, when he went to Southend magistrates’ court last week for two counts of being in charge of a dangerously out of control dog, he was ordered to go to jail for six weeks.

After appealing, he is now on bail.

I want a career, to earn money. I am worse off financially now than before Love Island

Jack Fincham

He said: “I was shocked they activated a sentence for something unconnected. They took me down and got me ready for prison. Chloe was crying in the court.”

Jack has now returned to the job he did before Love Island — selling stationery — and is doing a degree in financial trading.

He said: “I want a career, to earn money.

“I am worse off financially now than before  Love Island.

“At first, I made £8,000 for 30-second Instagram posts for companies like Vodafone, KFC or McDonald’s. But then nobody wanted me. I don’t blame them for rejecting me. I let people down.”

He is also returning to boxing.

Next month he will take part in The Equalizer, a professional bare knuckle fighting event in Harrow.

And he is looking to the future with Chloe. Jack said: “I want to marry her and have children.

“I will propose when I have enough money. If I did it now, her ring would have to come out of a cracker. Chloe deserves much more than that. She deserves a medal — she has saved my life.”

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