Just days ago, friends of James Argent revealed the reality star ‘has never been happier’ after ditching his drug and alcohol addictions, shedding 14 stone and finally finding love with his stunning model girlfriend.
The former TOWIE star, 37, looked utterly smitten as he and Swedish beauty queen Nicoline Artursson, 31, frolicked on the beach during a romantic getaway to Spain.
Whispers abounded that Arg, as he is more informally known, was even ready to ‘take the relationship to the next level’ with the former Miss Sweden, nine months after the pair casually met in a supermarket.
But a mere 72 hours after his beach outing, Arg’s relationship – and his entire reputation – have been left hanging in doubt after he pushed Artursson and she fell down steps during a violent row.
Argent, who admitted a domestic violence charge, is understood to have tried to force the model out of the front door of her apartment in the Costa del Sol, causing her to tumble down two steps.
Her screams alerted neighbours, who then called the police.
Artursson is understood to have needed hospital treatment, but the extent of her injuries are currently not known.
Argent has now been handed a six-month suspended sentence and a two-year restraining order, while also being told to complete a ‘resocialisation course in the field of gender violence’.
A mere 72 hours after he was spotted enjoying a romantic getaway with Nicoline Artursson, Argent admitted a domestic violence charge and was handed a suspended sentence
Argent admitted pushing Artursson in a violent row during a romantic getaway in Spain. The couple are pictured here on May 2 in Spain, just days before the incident
Argent had days earlier looked smitten as he sunbathed on the beach with Artursson during their romantic getaway in Spain
The turnabout in events is the latest in a long series of challenges Argent has had to face since coming into the public eye.
He has spoken openly about his battles with drink and drug addiction since finding fame on TOWIE and in 2014 he was suspended from the show after he failed a routine drugs test.
The TV star then spent three months in a facility in Thailand over the festive season in 2016 in order to get the ‘ongoing support’ he needed.
But in 2019, following a split with then girlfriend and fellow TOWIE cast member Gemma Collins, Argent relapsed and was hospitalised twice after overdosing on drugs at his home.
At the height of his addiction to cocaine, Argent previously recalled how he suffered with psychosis which left him convinced the walls in his house were caving in.
Speaking on the Cabin Recovery Podcast in 2023, the reality star revealed how his drug use went from being ‘recreational’ at the height of his TOWIE fame to something much darker.
He candidly detailed suffering with paranoia and psychosis in the midst of his cocaine addiction, telling how he would lock himself in his room for days on end.
Argent recalled one incident where he ‘barricaded’ himself in his room and suffered with psychosis on a four-day cocaine bender.
Just days ago, friends of James Argent reported the reality star ‘has never been happier’ after ditching his drug and alcohol addictions, shedding 14 stone and finding love again
Artursson is understood to have needed hospital treatment but the extent of her injuries are currently not known
Argent, who weighed 27 stone at his heaviest but has since lost 14-stone, underwent gastric sleeve surgery in 2021 and later had a tummy tuck to remove excess skin around his stomach
Argent has previously revealed how he would not eat for hours while taking cocaine, before ‘bingeing’ the next day, causing his weight to balloon to 27 stone
Speaking to host and recovering drug addict Hunter Michael Shepard, he said: ‘Over two years ago, it got that bad when I was literally having, I was picking up and I was continually picking up and using, and I didn’t have a wink of sleep for four days straight.
‘In my house, doors locked, barricading myself in my room, ultimate paranoia and psychosis. I used to think that the walls in my house were caving in.
‘I’ll be honest with you, I’ve never really told anyone this, but for days I’d be holding my head like this in my room, crying and screaming, thinking the ceilings were going to cave in on me.’
Argent said he would take cocaine alone in his home at the height of his habit as he bravely reflected on his struggles with psychosis and the dark moments of his addiction.
He said: ‘I would sit there for hours on my phone on selfie mode, taking videos and pictures for hours because I was adamant in my head that my nose was going to cave in.’
He heartbreakingly told how he was left not wanting to live, adding: ‘I never ever contemplated suicide, I never planned on taking my own life, I remember sitting there sometimes, almost praying to God saying take me now.’
Recalling another dark moment amid his addiction, Argent told how he once woke up at the bottom of his staircase covered in blood, but was too weak to stand up after not eating in days.
‘I remember waking up at the bottom of my staircase, with blood pouring down my face, like where am I? What am I doing? Screaming for help, but there was nobody around,’ he said.
Argent had a high profile and on-off love affair with his TOWIE co-star Lydia Bright, which lasted from 2008 to 2016
In 2019, following a split with then girlfriend and fellow TOWIE cast member Gemma Collins, Argent relapsed and was hospitalised twice after overdosing on drugs at his home
Argent dated 19-year-old Italian actress Stella Turian for just over a year
‘I was in such a bad physical condition that I couldn’t really stand up. I hadn’t eaten for days on end.’
The TV personality admitted he hit ‘rock bottom’ when he woke up in hospital on Christmas Day 2019 ‘fighting for his life’ after an overdose, with no family or friends around him, and realised he had ‘lost everything’.
Argent said he knew in that dark moment that he needed to get sober, admitting that needed to happen for him to accept he was in need of help.
But as his body struggled to overcome his addiction to alcohol and drugs, Argent found himself also enduring an eating disorder and unhealthy relationship with food.
Argent, who weighed 27 stone at his heaviest but has since lost 14-stone, underwent gastric sleeve surgery in 2021 and later had a tummy tuck to remove the excess skin around his stomach.
He said: ‘My eating disorder is my core addiction, that is my number one problem. The first time I went to rehab, which was The Cabin in Thailand, I remember I went there for drink and drugs, but within a day, I was put in the eating disorder unit.
‘I can almost laugh at it now, I’ve gone there for drink and drugs and was put in an eating disorder unit, like come on what else could possibly go wrong for me in my life? I tick every box, I’m an addict through and through.’
Argent detailed how he wouldn’t eat for hours while taking cocaine, before ‘bingeing’ the next day.
Argent gained weight as he struggled to control his addictions to drugs and alcohol
He explained: ‘It’s crazy because in most people’s minds, if you’re a cocaine addict, you’d associate cocaine with people who are really slim or skinny, or weight loss, or you’d hear stories about models taking cocaine because they’d stop eating.
‘But for me, it was the opposite. Even to this day, people are like ‘how can a cocaine addict be morbidly obese, it doesn’t make sense’.
‘What I would do, I’d pick up at 8 o’clock at night, I’d be using drugs until the early hours of the morning, and I could never eat once I was doing, so I would not eat anything from 9pm until the early hours of the morning, then I’d be tossing and turning for a few hours, trying to get some sleep.
‘Then, maybe if I did get a few hours, I’d be absolutely starving because I hadn’t eaten for so many hours, and then I would binge on everything.
‘I would binge on takeaways, fast foods, chewy sweets, crisps, sugary drinks, chocolate, ice cream, burgers, Indians.’
Argent explained that his binge-eating was the ‘route’ of his later cocaine addiction and said he had an unhealthy relationship with food and exercise from a young age.
‘I always had, even from a young age, I had quite an unhealthy exercise with food and exercise, I was yo-yoing,’ he said.
‘I wasn’t overweight for many years, I was very much up and down. One year I could be really slim, but not in a healthy place, pretty much starving myself and exercising all the time – and the other year, I could get morbidly obese, I would do no exercise at all and be binge eating.
He said losing weight and getting healthy had helped him with his sobriety – but so too had stability in his romantic relationships.
Argent had a high profile and on-off love affair with his TOWIE co-star Lydia Bright, which lasted from 2008 to 2016. It was reported at the time that his cocaine addiction played a role in their split.
He then moved on to Gemma Collins, but again his demons would emerge and cause a rift between the pair.
Appearing on This Morning, the reality star admitted that he ‘hated’ girlfriend Gemma Collins during the height of his addiction battle, as she refused to cover up for him.
Growing emotional, Arg confessed: ‘I really feel for Gemma because she has had to go through so much. When I was deep in my addiction I would hate her.
‘I would say “why are you telling my family, why are you telling me friends, why are you telling the bosses of the TV shows? You’re going to ruin my career.”
‘But she refused to cover up for me. She refused to lie for me, she would never cover up or enable to continue in my addiction.
‘At the time I hated her for that because I almost wanted to get away with it and do what I wanted.’
Argent said losing weight and getting healthy had helped him with his sobriety – but so too had stability in his romantic relationships
Admitting that Gemma was pivotal in his recovery, he continued: ‘She gave me some tough love for sure. She was hard on me.
‘Thank God she was because if it wasn’t for Gemma calling the ambulances to my house, who knows what could have happened.
‘I have put my own life at risk, my career and health. More important than that it’s what I’ve put my parents friends girlfriend and manager through.
‘The only way I can make amends with them is by staying clean and sober. It’s all good making these promises, but action speaks louder than words.’
The pair finally called it quits in 2020, with Argent subsequently dating 19-year-old Italian actress Stella Turian for just over a year.
Argent however seemed to have found love once more after falling for Artursson after they bumped into each other outside a Spanish supermarket.
Describing the moment they met, Argent revealed he thought she was out of his league but decided he had nothing to lose.
He said: ‘I was walking to my gig at Elliott Wright’s restaurant in Marbella.
Argent’s nine-month relationship is now said to be over, with the reality star no doubt left contemplating this latest fallout from his actions
‘All of a sudden I see this woman coming towards me. I was like, “Wow, she’s beautiful”. She was just in her gym clothes, wearing no make-up. She’d actually just fed a stray cat.’
And after summoning up the courage, he asked her out.
Despite Argent’s confession on their first date about his seven-year drug addiction, the model was unfazed.
He explained: ‘It was probably quite a lot to take in, but she was really cool. She was fine about everything. Being open and honest and putting your cards on the table from the start is so important.’
Insiders believed she would be the woman to turn Argent’s life around and that the model ‘loves him for who he is’.
‘He’s totally smitten. He’s definitely looking to pop the question and start their future together,’ a source told OK! Magazine earlier this month.
‘He has absolutely no doubt that she is the woman he wants to spend the rest of his life with, they are absolutely soulmates, there’s no question about it.’
But after more recent events, his nine-month relationship is now said to be over, with Argent no doubt left contemplating this latest fallout from his actions.
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please call the Samaritans for free on 116123 or visit: www.samaritans.org.
