Luke Bateman has got candid about the depth of his battle with addiction, as he celebrates 12 months of sobriety.
Taking to Instagram, the BookTok sensation, who won a legion of new fans with his recent stint on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, penned a lengthy essay explaining just what the milestone means to him.
And it’s clear the 31-year-old couldn’t be more grateful for the full life that now looms large before him.
“One year, twelve months, 365 days. Today marks them all,” he began.
“And I can’t tell you what it means. Because to tell you what it means, means that I would have to know what it means. And I don’t know what it means.”
The former The Bachelors star revealed just how deep his battle with addiction was as he cited the “nights I stood in the wind, wanting to fly, the nights I slept on lies, dreaming of truths, the nights that I drowned in tears, gasping for hope”.
Luke’s addiction an open book
In January, Luke, who played for NRL team the Canberra Raiders from 2015-2019, spoke to news.com.au about his crippling gambling addiction. He admitted it cost him close to $500,000.
“It was horrible. I was at the end of the tracks,” he said, adding he “would not wish it upon my worst enemy. I was in a very, very dark place”.
With his beloved mum at the forefront of his mind, Luke checked himself into rehab after leaving the NRL. He has spent the years since trying to beat his demons.
“It’s probably only been the last 12 to 24 months that things have really gotten to a good place,” he continued. “It wasn’t horrible the whole time, but there were years of struggle.”
In his Instagram post, that struggle is clear as he talks of walking in shadow, moving through fog and trudging in ache. And he hints that it goes all the way back to his childhood, as he reflects about the “10 year old, who wanted to be heard but was unable to be understood”.
Sobriety, he says now, means “everything”. “It means life, it means belonging, it means peace, it means home,” he writes.
Speaking with the Daily Mail on the eve of Sunday night’s I’m A Celeb finale, Luke revealed he’s completely sober from drugs and only drinks on occasion.
“My relationship with drugs and alcohol now is fantastic,” he said. “I hardly drink at all anymore. If I do, I’ll have one or two negronis and that’s it. The days of big binge drinking are done for me.”
“One year, twelve months, 365 days,” he concludes in his social media post. “They mean so little, and yet so much.”
If this article raises any issues for you, help is available. Call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or visit lifeline.org.au
