‘I went missing for a week in Dubai during battle with drugs’ says Love Island star after three stone weight loss
LOVE Island legend Jack Fincham has opened up on his devastating drugs battle after turning his life around and being eight months sober.
The reality show winner, 31, said at his lowest point he went missing for a week in Dubai while taking drugs every day.
At the time he was on the road to boxing stardom having signed a professional contract and his family had flown to Dubai to watch his bout against Anthony Taylor.
Speaking to Amber O’Donnell at Crypto Fight Week after returning to the sport and Dubai, he admitted his life 18 months ago was in chaos.
Jack said: “After the fight my family came out to see me, they flew all the way to Dubai to come and see me.
“You know my brother was there, my trainers, I went missing for a week after. Out drinking, not caring about anyone apart from myself.
“And it’s not that I’m a selfish person it’s that I didn’t have any respect for myself.”
The star explained: “It’s like my brain wasn’t working right, it was like, ‘you’ve done that, so you can do this and before I knew it I had ruined everyone else’s holiday, let myself down, and fell straight back into the cycle that I had been in before that fight.
“When I’m talking lows, I mean I had to borrow a score off my mum just to get about.”
Reflecting on his addiction taking over, Jack continued: “I had won one of the biggest shows in England, I had boxed on my actual hero’s card, but I had squandered the money and it was going on things that weren’t relevant.
“I had to ask mum for a score just to get about, and I was out every weekend taking drugs and drinking, doing things I shouldn’t have done, all it’s done is cost me jobs, lost friends.”
Jack said being arrested last year was a turning point for him.
“I thought, ‘this is enough now’,” he said.
“All this stuff was my own fault but I was good at having something else or someone to blame.
“This is September, last year, at the lowest point I was taking drugs pretty much every day to avoid how I was feeling.
“I get emotional talking about it because it’s hard.
“It’s so easy for people to go, ‘you had everything, you could have done anything,’ but I didn’t.
“But I don’t resonate with that person anymore.”
Jack, who first boxed in his teens, said the sport has saved him as it gave him a goal to focus on and the opportunity to be around healthy people.
The dad of one continued: “Going back to boxing, it’s the only thing that helps me, in a gym, all those people only want to see you as the best version of yourself, it’s a healthy environment to be in.
“I went and got a life coach. I’ve stopped blaming other people. Now I’m rectifying (it).”
The 2018 Love Island winner — who won the ITV show with Dani Dyer — returns to the ring on Friday in Dubai against trader and martial artist Ahmed Mousa at Crypto Fight Night.
And he is now ready to give it his all in boxing.
He told SunSport: “I’m 31 now, I’m in my last roll of the dice in boxing.
“So I’m giving my all this year, I’m going to fight a few times this year and probably for the next couple of years.
“I’m going to make this a massive, huge part of my life and keep it going, see how far I can take it.”
