S Club 7 star reveals he went missing for two years after ‘losing the plot’

S Club 7 star Jon Lee has said that he went missing for two years.

The 43-year-old former pop star ‘went off the rails’ following the death of his dad in 2019 after a battle with motor neurone disease (MND) and the end of a relationship.

He shared that he left his mother a note – along with the key to his front door – before he left; she didn’t hear from him again for two years.

During an appearance on the latest series of Celebs Go Dating on Thursday night, Jon explained: ‘I had this sort of emotional slap from this relationship, and then that [his dad’s diagnosis] happened.’

He said that he ‘hadn’t quite recovered’ from the split, so when he found out about his dad’s illness ‘everything fell apart’.

After describing his tight bond with his ‘brilliant’ dad – who was his ‘number one fan’ – Jon tearfully recalled: ‘Within the first year, he’d completely lost the ability to move, he couldn’t speak, he had to be fed through a tube in his stomach.

‘He couldn’t talk to me. To go out like that… I literally lost the plot. I thought: “What the f**k is the point?” It broke my heart.’

Revealing how he reacted, struggling to cope, Jon continued: ‘I just went out, I was taking loads of drugs. I went completely off the rails.’

He then realised he was at crisis point and had to sort himself out ‘or it’s not going to end well’ – so he decided to flee abroad and tell his mum in a note.

‘I packed a bag there and then, got my passport, got my credit cards, locked my front door – and I never went back.’

He sent his mother his front door key in the post with a letter.

‘I wrote her a note saying I don’t know where I’m going, I don’t know what I’m doing, but I can’t be here, I need to sort myself out. I left the country, and I didn’t come back for four years.’

As part of that process, he ‘didn’t speak’ to his mum for two years, leaving her fearing the worst as she had no idea as to his whereabouts.

‘She didn’t know where I was. She said every time the phone rang, she thought it was going to be the police saying: “We found Jon and he’s dead.”’

The Bring it All Back chart-topper called it his ‘biggest regret’, that he’d caused his mum that kind of worry and pain.

It comes after Jon recently opened up about his addiction issues that stemmed from this period, revealing he was secretly hooked on crystal meth and the drug almost killed him.

He told the Daily Mail: ‘I didn’t even recognise myself at that time. Sometimes, in the midst of one of the psychotic episodes where I’d be smashing my flat up with a hammer, I’d catch sight of myself in the mirror and say: “What the f**k?”

‘I’d be standing there, holes in the walls around me, cuts all over my knuckles, my eye swollen from where I’d been punching myself in the head.’

There were times where Jon wished himself dead, with the performer revealing: ‘As well as the crystal meth, I was taking GHB, which just knocks you out if you take a certain amount. I’d take four times the dose, hoping not to wake up.

‘When I did, often a whole 24 hours later, I just remember crying my eyes out because I simply didn’t want to be here.’

Jon is now recovered and living in Cornwall on a plot of land he bought when he returned from his global wanderings – he lives in one house and his mum, sister and nieces live in the other.

He previously shared that a Netflix documentary about S Club 7 could be in the works, featuring the story of him and his bandmates Rachel Stevens, Hannah Spearritt, Jo O’Meara, Bradley McIntosh, Tina Barrett and Paul Cattermole.

He said to The Sun: ‘The record company own the rights to all the TV shows and our music catalogue and they’re talking to Netflix, which will be great.

‘We’re also talking to them about doing our own documentary as well. Just for us.’

If it goes ahead, it would chart the highs of the group’s four number one singles and nostalgic hit TV shows, as well as lows including the devastating loss of band member Paul in 2023 aged just 46.

Bandmate and Paul’s ex-girlfriend Hannah quit S Club 7’s reunion tour afterwards, citing mental health reasons, before leaving the UK for a fresh start in Costa Rica with her family.

She recently appeared in the new series of Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins but voluntarily withdrew after one day.

Celebs Go Dating continues on Monday at 9pm on E4.

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