EastEnders star Danny Dyer has revealed that he thought he was "going to die" after battling drug abuse on the set of the BBC One soap opera. While discussing his diazepam dependency during a podcast with actress Jaime Winstone the Mick Carter actor claimed that he had to "sort [himself] out" during the difficult period, which was around the same time he married his wife Joanne Mas.
"I knew I had to f**king sort myself out because I'd been – sorry about my language – I'd been a c**t up to this point in the sense of what I was doing, what I was doing away from her, some of the situations I would find myself in," he told host Jaime.
He continued: "I look back and go: 'F**king hell man, I was weak'. I was wounded. I was vulnerable but of course I couldn't play vulnerable because I'm playing Danny Dyer, whatever that is."
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"Yeah. So I'm a bad boy, f**king, you know, whatever. And I quite like playing it, but you know, the amount of f**king diazepam I was on at the time, I was just munching," Danny told Jaime, before describing how he told EastEnders producers that he needed a break from the show.
"I said: 'Listen, I've gotta go somewhere. I'm going to die'. They was like: 'Oh, okay. Uh, right'. And so I sorted it myself and I paid for it myself. Fame never suited me. I was always f**king gonna be going down the wrong path. So I lost the plot for many years and I was a f**king lunatic.
"I became a sort of a cartoon character. I created it, don't get me wrong. I got wrapped up in that and I sort of lost who I was really. I was doing s***loads of f**king drugs. I was searching for something. There was a hole in me and I couldn't work out what the f**k it was."
Danny began playing fan-favourite EastEnders character Mick in 2014. During his time on the soap he has been involved in many huge storylines and most recently has been involved in a love triangle with Janine Butcher (Charlie Brooks) and ex Linda Carter (Kellie Bright). In January it was confirmed that Danny would be leaving EastEnders later this year. You can read more about that here.
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