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EXCLUSIVE: Celebrity Big Brother's Audley Harrison cocaine, cannabis & gambling addiction | Daily Star DARK PAST: Audley spoke of his youth and experimenting with drugs [TIM MERRY]

The Olympic gold medal-winning heavyweight finally beat his demons just months before entering Celebrity Big Brother.

Audley, 42, spoke about his criminal past, surviving Class A drugs and ­becoming hooked on gambling aged just nine.

He said: “I’ve done the drinking, the crime, the drugs. We all lose control sometimes and I lost control. Some of those vices allowed me to go mad and they were my crutch. It was an escape.

“When I was young I done the drugs. I smoked weed. I tried that and powder – cocaine. It got dark.

“So many can’t handle those addictions. It’s ­serious. I mean, look at poor Peaches Geldof.”

London-born Audley is a hero to millions of fans and his shock confession will rock the sporting world.

Six years ago his ­brother Vincent was found dead after a lethal cocktail of cocaine and heroin.

Audley said: “The main thing is I got through it. Some people don’t come out of the darkness.”

The boxer made history at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney when he became the first Brit to win gold in the ­superheavyweight division.

He went on to sign a £1million deal with BBC Sport but in 2004 boxing was dropped from the schedules and his career was left in tatters.

He said: “I couldn’t function. I lost it all and I said ‘God, you are talking to me and you want me to re-programme’.” HISTORY: Harrison was the first Brit to win Olympic gold in the superheavyweight division [STUART ROBINSON]

“I’ve done the drinking, the crime, the drugs”

Audley Harrison

Just months later he turned to gambling when he moved to Las Vegas.

He said: “My career imploded when I lost the BBC deal. It broke me down and gambling became my crutch and my ­­escape. I gambled a lot of money. When I was nine I would play the fruit ­machines. I would have enough ­money to get home but I would put every ­penny in the slot machine and walk the four miles home.

“So I was an addict at nine. And it was always there festering, waiting for me to go back – like an alcoholic walking past a liquor store.

“Then my boxing career took me to the gambling capital of the world.”

Audley’s addiction got so serious he was on the verge of quitting boxing to play poker full-time.

He said: “I was liking it a bit too much in Vegas so I needed to leave.

“I had a few wins that made me think I could be the next big thing in poker.

“It took me further away from boxing. For a second I got pulled down that road.”

After quitting his vices for family life with wife Raychel, 33, and their children Ariella, seven, and Hudson Hugh, one, Audley is now happier than ever.

He said: “At 19 I had just got out of jail with no qualifications. I didn’t want to go back. Ten years later I had a university degree and I have eventually given up all my vices.

“I was a playboy – smoking, drinking, drugs. But now I’m a focused adult.

“I finally gave up drinking alcohol in 2012 and my mantra in life is that you can still turn it around.” Lateysha Grace’s curves devour swimsuit in blisteringly hot reveal

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