Rizzle Kicks star reveals accidental drug overdose after disorder diagnosis --[Reported by Umva mag]

Rizzle Kicks dominated the UK hip pop scene in the late noughties, but Jordan Stephens has revealed it wasn’t always a smooth ride, and at one point, he was struggling with a cocaine addiction. 

Now 32 years old, the singer who rose to fame in his early 20s has opened up about the Rizzle Kicks’ peak success and how it contributed to some damaging habits which he used as a ‘coping mechanism’ for life in the spotlight. 

Recalling the years the duo, which also includes Harley Alexander-Sule, 32, spent a lot of time going to industry events, performing at festivals, and going on tour, Jordan admitted cocaine helped relieve some pressure and stopped him from ‘overthinking’. 

Appearing on Busted star Matt Willis’ podcast, On the Mend, he said he and Harley went from playing at their friend’s prom to being ‘invited to events with people that I’d literally just watched on telly with’. 

‘As you would know, it was surreal,’ he said. ‘So I’m just like, I can’t cope with it. And it was exciting but I had this compulsive thought where if I said bye to someone… I’m just remembering this now… I would obsess over like whether or not I said bye in the right way to myself.

‘So it’d be like if I shook their hand, I’d be like, was I supposed to shake their hand? Or like give, you know, the kind of like, more like chill version of, cupping the hand and then a slap on the back or a hug, or if I said, why did I say, see you soon? And I would go go go go go go.’ 

Jordan continued to say that while the Class A drug helped him at first, he realised it was a problem when he began using it at home, which is when he began making a change. 

However, the star, who recently released his autobiography Avoidance, Drugs, Heartbreak and Dogs, revealed his drug problems weren’t over, and he later found out he had been accidentally overdosing daily. 

Having been diagnosed with ADHD, an attention deficit disorder which affects a person’s behaviour, attention and ability to control themselves, when he was 15 years old, the star told Matt that he was taking non-prescribed doses of modafinil to help control it. 

Methylphenidate is the most commonly used medication for ADHD in the UK but, modafinil, a stimulant medication, can also be prescribed for individuals in the UK. 

Jordan said he underwent a psych exam for a television show where the doctor asked about the medication he used for his diagnosis. 

Admitting he purchased it off the internet, he recalled telling the doctor he sometimes takes two pills a day, ‘but it varies’. 

‘And he went, okay, how strong are the pills? And I went 200mg each. And I remember he just went quiet. And he was like 400mg a day? And I went sometimes,’ Jordan said. 

The doctor responded by writing the musician a prescription: ‘And I remember so vividly he gave me the prescription, and I looked at it and it said 16mg, and I was like 16mg?’ 

It was a moment that sparked a memory for Jordan from when he read a pamphlet about overdosing and was shocked to realise he had been experiencing a lot of the symptoms. 

‘It was like dry tongue, profuse sweating,’ he said. ‘And it was just like all the things that I thought meant the mode of modafinil was kicking in, was working.

‘So by those metrics, I’d basically been overdosing on every day for like 18 months’. 

Jordan and Harley went their separate ways in 2015, releasing their own music and even pursuing acting. However, they announced in May that they were reuniting at Rizzle Kicks. 

Outside of his music career, Jordan has been in a relationship with Little Mix’s Jade Thirlwall since 2020.

Rizzle Kicks are touring the UK in March next year. For tour and ticket information, click here.

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