Inside Michael Barrymore's BIZARRE new life 24 years after tragic pool death that ended his career

The Sun

6 hours ago

WITH a glittering TV career that saw him branded 'Mr Saturday Night', Michael Barrymore ruled the airwaves in the 80s and 90s until a tragic death in the swimming pool of his mansion ended his career overnight.
Since that devastating loss and the furore that followed, the former king of light entertainment has spent much of the last 24 years in the showbiz wilderness - but now the broadcasting legend has a bizarre new career making him an estimated £250,000 a year.
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Aged 76, Michael is enjoying an unlikely second act online, after the entertainment industry shunned his attempts to get his telly career back off the ground.
He is now a well-loved TikTokker and YouTube vlogger with millions of fans liking his witty, quirky and often self-deprecating clips.
With videos ranging from 'What I Eat in a Day' diaries, to unpacking shopping hauls and reviewing faddy Gen-Z phenomenons like Lububu dolls, his content is more the kind of thing you'd expect to see on the likes of Molly Mae's channel than a septuagenarian former telly presenter.
A friend of Michael's reveals: 'Michael is having a great time. He lives to entertain people, and while he may not be getting the TV offers he once did, this way he gets to create his own content on his own terms.
'What started as a bit of a hobby online has now become a way of connecting with his fans again, flexing his funny bone and getting back to doing what he loves without the pressure and scrutiny that comes with being on the nation's TV screens every week.'
TELLY LEGEND TO TIKTOK SENSATION
Yet while some may scoff at this unusual new career direction, fans old and new seem to be lapping it up - with both Gen Z's and millennials logging on to see his joyfully mundane life.
At the last count, he'd amassed a whopping 3.6million followers and a gargantuan 197.7million likes on TikTok, creating some serious competition for influencers who weren't even born when he was one of the highest-paid men on the box.
PR expert Lynn Carratt has estimated he could be making more than £250,000 a year, thanks to his clips and collaboration with Sports Direct that could have made him £1,500 alone.
One of his most popular videos sees the funnyman dropping various items on his head, from a baking tray to a board game and a towel.
While hundreds in the comment section have been left baffled - "Can you explain plz, I don't get it" is one commonplace response - it hasn't stopped the clip racking up 54.1million views.
But the once-cancelled star has proved he is down with the Gen Z kids - using a range of their phrases in this videos - "photo dump", "gwrm" and "aura" are just some of the ones he's come out with.
Even Sabrina Carpenter is a fan - she reposted one of his videos, which led to him exclaiming: 'Gang I just woke up to find that Sabrina Carpenter knows I exist. I am fangirling so hard right now!!'
Inside Michael Barrymore's bizarre new life as a tiktok influencer 24 years after pool tragedy
Wholesome content with his whippet puppy, who he adopted last October, also amasses clicks in the millions.
Meanwhile, over on YouTube, his subscriber numbers might be lower at 51,200, but that doesn't stop him serving his loyal fanbase with fresh videos most days - and in the last month alone, he has posted 19 vlogs.
A recent 17-minute-long vlog entitled "WTF is a Labubu?" is packed with content, kicking off with him unboxing the toy that has spawned fans from David Beckham to Dua Lipa.
'They're pretty cool, it's a great accessory, innit?' Mike grins as films himself in his bedroom, his pup Lara chilling on the bed in the background before coming to say hello to the camera.
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From there, he dashes off to walk his furry friend, picking flowers for a floral collage along the way before making a pitstop at fast food chain Jollibee, where he tucks into a bucket of chicken and a burger as his phone camera captures all the action.
It may be a far cry from the days when his hit vehicles Strike It Lucky and My Kind of People topped the telly ratings, or when he cracked jokes for the Queen while hosting the Royal Variety Performance, but insiders say the troubled broadcaster is happier than he's been for years with his new niche.
For Michael, this newly found happiness and tapping back into his creative, comedic side, has been a long time coming as for years, he had very little to laugh about.
DEATH AT THE MANSION
While in the late nineties he weathered his share of upheavals - he battled alcoholism, came out as gay in 1995 and ended his marriage to wife Cheryl the following year - his world came to a stop on 31 March 2001.
In the early hours of that morning, a man named Stuart Lubbock was found dead, floating in the pool of Barrymore's £2million Essex mansion following a party at the pad.
A post-mortem found he had suffered severe internal injuries that suggested he was sexually assaulted.
Michael had invited the factory supervisor back to his home for a private party along with a group of guests after meeting him at the Millennium Nightclub.
The TV star has always denied involvement in the death, and while he was questioned at the time and then later arrested in 2007 along with two others, all were released without charge.
To this day, Stuart's death remains unsolved, despite an inquest and Stuart's brother lobbying for a second.
A LIFE IN TATTERS
Michael, meanwhile, saw his big money contracts with ITV cancelled in the wake of the incident, and in the years that followed he fled the UK for a quiet life 12,000 miles away in New Zealand with then-boyfriend Shaun Davies.
In 2006, he returned to the UK and attempted to revive his career with a stint on Celebrity Big Brother.
He was branded a "narcissistic bully" after a feud with fellow housemate, glamour girl Jodie Marsh, but managed to finished second.
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The reality show failed to reignite his once-illustrious broadcasting career, however, and several subsequent projects failed to get off the ground.
In the fallow period that followed, Michael found himself resorting to hosting gigs on local and hospital radio, while a role in Scrooge: The Musical failed to transfer to the West End.
A planned comeback when he was cast on Dancing On Ice in 2019 was also derailed when he was forced to pull out due to injury.
TV BREAKDOWN
A rare TV appearance came that same year when Michael appeared as a guest on Piers Morgan's Life Stories, where he admitted he was living as a recluse and had attempted to take his own life following Lubbock's death.
Breaking down in tears, he insisted he was completely innocent but revealed his remorse over what happened.
'I could not be more sad. I could not be more sorry that this event took place,' he sobbed.
'It was at my house and they don't have all the answers to how he got these injuries. I could not be more sad or sorry if I have to be for the rest of my life.'
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Since then, Michael has only appeared on screens once, in a 2023 interview on This Morning to promote a play he was co-directing.
But now, two years after that brief guest spot and almost quarter of a century since the devastating night that ended his career, Michael seems to have found a glimmer of his old self again in his new era as an internet star.
Affectionately referring to his followers as his 'besties', it seems his cyber fanbase have given him a reason to smile again - and judging from the gushing responses they leave in his comments section, he is doing the same for them too.
'So pleased you're doing so well….,' one such devotee commented on his most recent upload, 'Really miss you when you don't vlog. You brighten my day so much.'