Actress Jodi Gordon reveals what led to her 30-day rehab stint

In a candid new interview, Neighbours star Jodi Gordon opens up about hitting rock bottom before entering rehab for a month this year.

Australian actress Jodi Gordon gives a candid account of facing up to her years-long alcohol dependence in an exclusive new interview with Stellar, out today.

The 37-year-old Neighbours and Home And Away star, who is currently appearing as a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice, checked into rehab in April shortly after she and her investment banker ex-boyfriend were barred from communicating with each other for two years.

Speaking to Stellar, Gordon described alcohol as her “poison” and revealed how bad things got before she entered rehab for 30 days.

“I’ve chased this illusion that I can drink like a normal person for far too long. It got really bad when I was doing Neighbours. It was the commuting, the stress of travelling … In my industry, I think there’s a lot of keeping up with appearances,” she said.

Read the full interview with Stellar here

Gordon has revealed the pressures of filming Neighbours worsened her drinking problem.

“I was trying to present something beyond [what] I could pretend to control, trying to do my best, but just sinking … feeling like I was a small girl in a big world. I think I got to a point where the depression really started to sink in.”

Gordon starred in Home And Away as Martha Mackenzie from 2005-2010 and on Neighbours as Elly Conway from 2016-2020, reprising the role for the show’s upcoming final episodes.

She won the Logie in 2006 for Popular New Female Talent and was nominated for Popular Actress in 2009.

But she hit the headlines for a different reason earlier this year following a dramatic split from former partner Sebastian Blackler.

The former couple were barred from communicating with each other for two years after a “physical altercation“ that happened at a bed and breakfast in Kurrajong Heights, north west of Sydney, on April 3. Later that month, Gordon checked into rehab.

“The place that I was in before I went into rehab was a really dark place she said.

“It’s a place where I was so far down this well – which is what I call it – that it’s really hard to think, to hear, to see any form of light or to be able to connect with anyone, let alone to reach out or talk to anyone.

Jodi Gordon for Stellar Magazine.

“So for me to hear that someone is worried about me or to hear that someone is telling me to go to rehab or that I need help, that just sounded like white noise.”

Eventually, Gordon said, she became “so desperate” that she realised she needed to seek help.

“I let someone help me make that choice and I booked myself in … begrudgingly, but within a couple of days, I knew I was right where I belonged.”

Gordon also told Stellar that, while she feels “shame and guilt” about some mistakes she’s made in the past, she won’t be shamed by others about her decision to enter rehab.

“I don’t think that having an opinion or degrading someone for trying to get help or trying to be better and improve their life is fair,” she said.

Originally published as Actress Jodi Gordon reveals what led to her 30-day rehab stint