3 days ago
Davey Lloyd opens up about drug addiction and how he turned life around
Davey Lloyd has opened up about his sobriety journey – revealing that his addiction to drugs and alcohol was so bad, he nearly lost his life before managing to beat his demons.
The former reality star, 35, has been free of substances for more than 500 days, a feat he achieved after checking into rehab following a scary accidental cocaine overdose that left Lloyd 'clinically dead' for several minutes in December 2023.
After hitting rock bottom, the reformed party boy has a new outlook on life, explaining the emotional reason he finally cleaned himself up after hitting rock bottom.
'The only way I could be a decent human being, is to get sober,' he said while appearing as a guest on the new episode of the Soberly Speaking podcast.
'And doing that for my future wife, future kids and for my family.'
Lloyd told host Julia Rangiheuea, a former Big Brother contestant who has also had a personal battle with substance abuse, that his issues stemmed from an unknown trauma he carried as a child after losing a sibling to Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
'I found out through doing a lot of healing, and stuff like that in rehab, that trauma can be passed down from parents to their children,' he said.
'My brother passed away at five weeks old of cot death (an older term for SIDS), on Christmas Eve in 1988.
'I was conceived not long after his passing … my mum was still mourning when she was pregnant with me, so I absorbed a lot of her trauma and her own self-doubt. That has been ingrained into me.'
He went on to state – through tears – that he believes this is where his own 'self-loathing and shame' came from, and why he detached himself to drugs after taking his first pill at age 16.
From there, Lloyd began smoking marijuana, before finding cocaine, a drug he said was highly addictive as he had Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
'It made me feel normal,' he explained.
'People with ADHD release less dopamine in the brain, so cocaine for me was like self-medicating, and I remember being like, 'this is who I am supposed to be'. I can sit down and talk to people. I could be so friendly. I could listen to what people had to say.'
After discovering the Class A narcotic, Lloyd became a 'party boy' who would go on days-long benders, admitting that before he starred on the first season of The Bachelorette with Sam Frost in 2015, he'd been out getting wasted.
'I was 25, the youngest there, and the first one to meet her,' he recalled on Soberly Speaking.
'I'd come from a big weekend, I'd probably had 15 eckies [ecstasy pills] and what not.
'I think I finished up partying on the Monday morning from Friday, and then had to leave the house on Tuesday to start filming'.
Despite forming a 'connection' with Frost, Lloyd left the famous mansion without a rose ceremony, and returned back to his party lifestyle, which he said only snowballed from there.
As a result, Lloyd experienced three drug-induced seizures over the next decade, with the latter almost taking his life.
'I'd been sniffing for 48 hours, and I got up to get in an Uber, but as I stood up, I don't really know what happened,' he said.
'Forty minutes later, I woke up on the ground, all the ambulance surrounding me. I pissed myself, I couldn't get up, my mates were in hysterics, I couldn't speak.
'They told me after that I had died. My friends had attempted CPR on me and had failed, but luckily the ambulance came in time and brought me back to life.'
After this terrifying brush with death, Lloyd began the long journey to health and recovery, stating it made him realise that 'my life was meaningless'.
He moved back in with his parents and checked into rehab. But it wasn't all smooth sailing. Lloyd's addition had left him $70,000 in debt.
'When you're sniffing $8000 of cocaine-a-week, it racks up, pun intended,' he said.
Now almost two years clean of drugs and alcohol, Lloyd is focused on his future, and hopes his sobriety will make him a good dad and partner when the time comes.
Now, the former reality star said he's 'grateful' for the events that brought him to where he is today.
'I'm so grateful to be here, to have made it through the tough times, and to be experiencing life in a new way,' he wrote on Instagram recently.
Fans have been quick to commend the reformed drug addict, praising him for his honesty and bravery.
'You should be so proud of yourself,' one said.
'Super brave Davey to be so open and transparent …. You are doing amazing things and your dreams and aspirations will most definitely come true,' agreed another.
As one mused: 'Sobriety looks so good on you.'
