He’s turned his life around over the past two years – quitting booze and drugs and undergoing gastric sleeve surgery. But last week, James “Arg” Argent revealed just how close he recently got to undoing all his hard work for good, after suffering a “bad relapse” last month.
Speaking from his Essex home, the 34 year old said he’d broken his two years of sobriety and that the paramedics had been called after one drink spiralled into something more.
“Addicts always say one drink is never enough,” said Arg – who said he’d had “cravings” while on a night out with friends in London.
“I can’t get into the specifics of what I did, but that’s where it all started and I ended up at home having an awful relapse. I’d been clean and sober for such a long time, it hit me like a ton of bricks,” he added.
CHECK OUT James Argent's relationship timeline: who has the TOWIE star dated?
James Argent relationship timeline (slider)
1 of 5Lydia Bright
When TOWIE first aired way back in 2010, James Argent and Lydia Bright were love's young dream. Despite Arg's best mate Mark Wright being the resident lothario of the show, Lydia and Arg were each others' first loves, but they eventually split for good in 2016 over Args's substance abuse issues. Earlier this year it was reported that Lydia and Arg had been spotted playing "happy families" with Lydia's daughter Loretta at her sisters wedding, with the former couple remaining close after their split.
2 of 5Jasmin Walia
During one of his temporary splits from Lydia in 2013, Arg was set up on a blind date with newcomer Jasmin Walia. However, things seemed to be moving too fast for James when Jasmin introduced him to her family just two dates in and he literally legged it from her house. Jasmin went onto have a short lived relationship with Mario Falcone before quitting the series in 2015 to focus on her music career.
3 of 5Amy Childs
Also during his relationship with Lydia - though whilst they were very much 'on' – Arg admitted to sharing a snog with OG Queen Bee Amy Childs in the loos at an ITV party, coming clean in 2014. "I've never revealed this before but I actually cheated on Lydia with Amy Childs," James told The Daily Star. "Sam Faiers walked in on us. It happened when I was with Lydia. I didn't sleep with Amy but we kissed and I got caught."But following his confession, Amy refuted the claims saying, "It's a lie. Arg needs to get his story straight. We kissed for like, three seconds. Not even that."He didn't tell me he was with Lydia at the time either."
4 of 5Cadah Draper
Fast forward to 2017 after his final split with Lydia and James signed up to the celeb dating agency on Celebs Go Dating after getting clean during an extended rehab stint in Thailand. James finished the show alongside science student and nightclub staff Cadah Draper. Despite getting on well during filming, their romance wasn't to last.
5 of 5Gemma Collins
And of course, running alongside all of this has been Gemma 'The GC Collins'.After meeting in 2011 when Gemma joined the cast of TOWIE, it wasn't until 2012 during an 'off' with Lydia Bright that Arg and Gemma first became romantic (their first split resulted in the iconic, "You ain't never gonna get this candy" line from Gemma). They reprised their romance in 2017 but it wasn't until 2018 - when Gemma signed up to Celebs Go Dating – that they really made a go of things.However, after hanging on through reports of a number of nasty arguments and James' continuing problems with his cocaine addiction, the couple split for good last year and Gemma is now dating her ex Rami Hawash.
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Arg said that his “cravings” had worsened following his surgery last April as – after feeling and looking better than he’d done in years – he’d convinced himself that he was “fully recovered”.
He said that he’s learnt from his mistake and has accepted that for him alcohol is a “gateway to other things like drugs”.
“I’m an addict, so it’ll never be just one or two drinks – that will lead me to hospital or death,” he admitted.
“If I have a drink, it affects my friends, family, career, relationships… I let people down, I am selfish and I lie to people. There are so many consequences if I just have one drink.”
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