LOVE Island’s Jack Fincham is back selling pens at the same company he worked for at 17, insisting: “I’ve never been happier”.
The 31-year-old gave an emotional interview to The Sun about his secret stint in rehab as he opened up about his drug addiction for the first time.
After a series of arrests for drug-driving, Jack has been clean since August – the longest he’s been drug-free since his eight-week stretch in the Love Island villa in 2018.
He’s returned to work at London’s AJ Office Supplies – and credits the job for getting him back on the straight and narrow.
Jack told us: “I’m back to work now and having a routine keeps me sane, it gives me a purpose, right? That’s why I’m so happy.
“After Love Island I had more money than I knew what to do with.
“I could go out on a Wednesday and not have to worry about getting up for work early the next day.
“I’ve been gradually falling to pieces since 2018… then the money ran out.”
Jack won Love Island‘s £50k prize with his then-girlfriend Dani Dyer and promptly quit his full-time job as offers flooded in.
But his drug abuse spiralled out of control and soon he was losing TV work because of his addiction.
Now he’s working as an account manager and salesman, working with big clients in the city.
“I’m in the process of building myself up,” Jack says excitedly.
“Which is why I’m back selling pen supplies. Stick to what you know!
“I’m trying to get myself back on top,”
“I mean, I wish I had gone back to work two years ago, but it’s been amazing for me.
“I’m back working with some of the same people I knew when I was 17.
“They’ve all been saying how great I’m doing. I’m grafting hard and excited for the future.
“I want to have one of the biggest stationary companies in the whole of the UK one day.
“I’d also love to get back to TV one day.
“I always thought you had to do one or the other, but you actually don’t. You can do both.
“I worried about people thinking I was failure because I’d gone back to work and was out of money, but it’s the complete opposite. They should be thinking, ‘great, you’re getting even more money in’.
“That’s how I look at things now.”
At his worst in 2020, Jack was taking at least 30 diazepam pills a day to cope with his crippling anxiety.
In November of that year he was tricked into going into rehab while high on drugs by his mum Samantha.
Terrified for her son’s health, she worked with his agent to get him checked into The Haynes Clinic in Bedfordshire.
“Death was on the cards for me, it was imminent,” Jack says emotionally.
“If I had carried on how I was, even up to six months ago, I would definitely be dead. Without a shadow of a doubt.”
Jack’s undergone a life-changing few months after landing in trouble with the police turned out to be the push he needed to get help.
After admitting to drug-driving, Jack was handed a 36-month driving ban and given 60 hours’ community service after admitting two counts of drug-driving.
Jack – who suffers from ADHD – attended his first Narcotics Anonymous meeting last night and is back in therapy as he continues to rehabilitate himself.
He is set to volunteer in a charity shop as part of his sentence, which he was handed last month.
He is still under investigation for alleged drug-driving in August this year.
“This has made me realise that I have to take responsibility for my actions,” says Jack.
“I was carrying on with the same lifestyle after the arrest in March, but now it’s hit home.
“I’m glad it’s happened. That’s how life is, if you make a mistake, you have to pay for it. I deserve to have a driving ban and be doing community service.
“I had no respect for myself and was selfish about others. I didn’t care what happened to me in the frame of my mind I was in. I wasn’t thinking about what harm I could do to myself or how I could hurt others.
“This isn’t about wanting people to feel sorry for me. It’s embarrassing enough as it is.
“This is more about explaining I have been going through a problem and I still am. I’ll always have to work on this problem.
“I’m not saying ‘poor me, poor me’. Getting behind the wheel of the car when you’ve taken drugs is not acceptable – but the real turning point was getting in trouble with the police and realising that I could have killed myself or someone else in that car.”
