TV star Simon Gregson has been part of the Coronation Street family since 1989 – a whopping 36 years, or more than two-thirds of his life. And he hasn’t got plans to up sticks.
He gave viewers an idea of how he feels about his future as Steve McDonald in a recent podcast interview.
“So as long as they’ll have me, and pay me, I’ll stay,” he said. “For me it was never about ambition. It was never about treading the boards and trying new things.”
But his life behind the scenes has taken its toll on his mental health, and ended up with the star – on Deal or No Deal this weekend (August 3) – battling booze, drugs and anxiety…
Simon Gregson used to get beaten up ‘every other weekend’ by jealous men
When he joined the cast of Coronation Street, Simon Gregson was just a teenager. His first episode aired on December 6, 1989. He reportedly makes £150,000 a year for his troubles. Not a bad living, but he has paid for it off-screen, in ways you might not expect.
“There was a lot of violence towards me from other blokes. Girls would spot me and guys would get jealous. I’d be spat at and beaten up every other weekend. It was ridiculous. Just because I was the kid off the telly,” he told the Sunday Mirror in 2014.
“I had to climb through the back garden then another garden where my mate would be waiting for me,” he went on. Getting out of the house was a whole rigmarole. “I’d hide in the back of the car. It was mad walking down the street. Going anywhere was difficult.
“Lots of weird and crazy stuff happened. Bras were sent through the post and press waited outside my house,” he said.
Sadly, that wasn’t the worst of it…
He spent his salary going out or on cars
In his own words, Simon Gregson went “completely wild” after finding fame on the cobbles. He would go out of an evening and end up paying for his whole party to stay in hotel suites.
As time went on his alcohol consumption vastly increased and he admitted getting “dangerously drunk”. He would go to the pub and then wind up drinking a whole bottle of whisky at 4 or 5 o’clock in the morning.
As a result, he would arrive late for work. Sometimes two hours late. Or he would fail even to turn up. By his own admission, he didn’t take it seriously. He even goes as far as to say he didn’t want to be there.
Being famous wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, and he hated it. He isn’t proud of his behaviour, but drinking and getting “wasted” was a way of escaping the trials and tribulations of unwanted fame, he’s said.
“I hated being famous, I’m not proud of my behaviour but getting wasted was a way of forgetting,” he said previously.
Drug use and driving bans
Simon’s drinking escalated. He started to pair it with narcotics, such as marijuana and cocaine, seeking, per The Sun, an escape from normal life. It also changed him as a person. Looking back, he sees that now.
“Overconfidence coupled with a lot of Scotch turned me into a complete [bleep]hole,” he said.
His lifestyle led to a series of driving bans. He lost weight and his drug habit became public knowledge in 1995. One day, he woke up in a room full of strangers, and didn’t recognise his gaunt reflection in the mirror.
Things changed after that and he quit cocaine for good.
He now has three sons: Alfie (born 2007), Harry (2009) and Henry (2016). He married his life partner Emma Gleave in 2010. And, 25 years after joining the Corrie cast, he couldn’t have been happier with his life.
Until things “came to a head”…
Panic attacks and anxiety
“It all came to a head in 2015,” Simon told the Loose Women panel a few months ago. “I kept having anxiety attacks, panic attacks. Which is so bizarre, because I’ve been having them all day today. I was like: ‘There’s no way I can go on,'” he explained.
“It just hits you like a tonne of bricks and makes you completely incapacitated,” he added. “I’ve been having them since 1990 but I just got on with it [then].
“But then when I had children and they were noticing it and they were getting anxious, I thought, I’ve passed it on. It’s like a cold – I’ve given it to them.”
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He worried that his ill mental health was contagious. But he had no idea what the episodes were. He told the Loose Women studio audience he had “every kind of test known to man”: brain scans, ECTs, the works. He saw ear, nose and throat specialists and wore heart monitors. But no one could get to the bottom of it. He was “constantly ill”.
As he had done previously, he self-medicated with alcohol. This, he warns against. Despite seeming like a “good short-term cure”, alcohol can also be a “long-term problem”, he insisted.
The best thing? Talk, he said. “Go to your GP and get some help.”
Simon Gregson is on Deal or No Deal Celebrity Special on Sunday at 2:05pm on ITV1.
Read more: Simon Gregson on deathbed fear that made him finally seek help for anxiety
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