FORMER Hollyoaks star Paul Danan has told how he was offered a bag of cocaine as a welcome present on his first day on the Channel 4 soap.
In a candid interview, the 45-year-old who played Sol Patrick also revealed that he bedded up to a 1000 women at the height of his fame and how, his attempt to break America led him to spiral into drug addiction.
Sporting curly hair and a knitted jumper, the actor looked almost unrecognisable from his soap heartthrob heyday.
Speaking on The Dozen with Liam Tuffs podcast he said: “The day I started there, someone and I am not going to say who, handed me an eighth of cocaine and I didn’t really know much about coke and he was like, “welcome.” It was the first day, the first read through, I hadn’t even filmed anything.”
The dad-of-one also spoke about his love life, admitting that he’d lost count of the number of women he’d slept with.
He said: “I don’t know I think we’re defintitely n the higher range, more than a thousand yeah”
And the former TV star confessed to missing his carefree younger days where meeting women felt relaxed and easy.
He said “ I really miss it. It don’t happen like it used you, you have to be careful if you’re looking at someone who is 25, is that wrong, is that right? Are you alright to fancy someone whose 25, ,30. Theyre not on your level at 45. I am looking more at the 30 range, I need to be attracted.”
Paul’s battle with drug addiction first began after he left Hollyoaks in 2001 after four years playing Sol.
He moved to Los Angeles in an attempt to make it in Hollywood, but Paul struggled to cope with the rejection and felt isolated from friends and family.
He said: ‘They were selling me as this young Jude Law type guy. You can’t party and do well in Hollywood. You’ve got to be healthy. It was cool but I ended up getting into the wrong type of routine of using drugs.
‘I can’t handle rejection but I choose the one job that gives you more rejection than any other job. I’m auditioning for big, big movies.
‘A lot of the time my life revolved around getting stoned, going to a gig, doing a pill or coke. There was always drugs involved.
‘America is very drug orientated if you’re young. I was in my twenties. The one thing I needed was family or friends around me and I didn’t. It was like the drugs filled that void, they were my friend.’
In the interview he also estimated that he must have spent £1 million on rehab and recovery.
Fortunately now, Paul has turned his life around and now lives in Bristol, running drama workshops for children.
After starring on Hollyoaks for five years, Paul went on to appear on ITV2 Celebrity Love Island in 2005. Since then he’s had appearances on various reality shows including E4’s Celebrity Coach trip.
