Back in the mid-1990s Paul Nicholls was about as big a deal as it got on British telly.
A fresh-faced, handsome actor, he already had a number of TV credits under his belt when in 1995 he got his big break playing troubled teenager Joe Wicks in EastEnders.
Overnight, he became the hottest young heartthrob around.
With his curtains hairstyle and good looks, Paul – pictured earlier this year in north London with his new girlfriend – adorned magazine covers and TV chat shows from the minute he joined the BBC soap.
Drawing acclaim for his portrayal of schizophrenic Joe, he was also twice voted TV’s sexiest actor.
Paul – real name Gerard Paul Greenhalgh – enjoyed the high life and had flings with a number of women, including EastEnders stars Martine McCutcheon and Daniella Westbrook.
But fame and fortune at such a young age soon took its toll and his partying quickly got out of control.
(Image: BBC)
After just two years, he quit the hit soap and later admitted that he had struggled with depression.
The 42-year-old has also revealed that his abuse of alcohol and drugs got so serious that he had no option but to go tee-total.
“People said I had too much too soon when I was playing Joe Wicks, and maybe they were right,” the Bolton-born star told the Daily Mail at the time.
“I didn’t want to be a heart-throb, and I could not handle the attention.
“I was well on my way to a total breakdown. I was drinking a lot and taking drugs. I had lost control of my life.
“I had lost control of my life. The more I partied, the more I was telling myself, ‘Wow, this is what acting is all about.’
(Image: Getty Images)
“Everything spun out of control. I had an appetite for craziness.”
He later told how he’d struggled badly with his mental health, falling into a depression.
“Although I was often out of it on drink and drugs, I was never so far gone that I didn’t know at the back of my mind that something had to give,” he said.
“The life I was living would have destroyed me and my career. So I made myself stop. I discovered I can’t just have a couple of drinks and then stop. It’s not in my make-up.”
Picking himself up, Paul went on to star in a number of shows after leaving Albert Square.
He popped up in Holby City, Ackley Bridge, Waterloo Road and Law and Order: UK, among other shows.
(Image: (Channel 4 images must not be altered or manipulated in any way) Channel 4 Picture Publicity, Horseferry Road, London, SW1P 2TX)
After seven years of dating Scottish Oil of Olay model Chantal Brown, the couple got married in 2012 but divorced in 2015.
In 2016, Paul revealed that he’d had a cancer scare after mysteriously losing his voice for several months.
Doctors eventually found a tumour in his throat which was thankfully benign.
Speaking after making his return to acting in a theatre production of The Shawshank Redemption, he said: “It’s nerve-racking to be back on stage.
“I didn’t speak for a couple of months. It was a tumour rather than a nodule, in my vocal cords.”
But the following year, there was more trauma – this time almost fatal.
And in 2017 he almost died after spending three days trapped in a Thai rock pool with a smashed leg.
(Image: PH)
The near-death accident happened after Paul left his hotel to go for a ride on his scooter around the island of Koh Samui and fell while reportedly trying to take a selfie.
He almost died in Thailand when he was trapped in a rock pool with a badly smashed leg.
The near-death accident in 2017 happened when Paul went for a ride on his scooter on the island of Koh Samui. According to some reports, he fell 20ft while trying to take a selfie.
But speaking on Loose Women, he said he had been chased and attacked by wild dogs.
He said he watched in horror as his knee cap split open during the gruesome fall.
He told the panel: “It was 6.30am, I’d been in the gym already. I lived halfway up the mountain, I went to the top to take pictures.
(Image: PH)
“I came around the corner, there were about 15 wild dogs. One pack had made a kill and the blood attracted the rest of them.
“The nearer I got to the waterfall, one of them chomped on top of my foot. It drew blood and then he ran off with my flip flop.
“I pulled into the waterfall and thought the only way I can go is down, but I didn’t realise how much I was bleeding.
“As soon as I touched the rock, I just went over. It was a 20ft drop and my knee hit something on the way down.
“It looked like something just flew out of my knee – part of my knee cap – and then I hit the water. Where my knee cap should have been, there was just a hole and I was holding it.”
Paul remembered “screaming for help” while crabs and leeches were emerging everywhere.
He said: “These crabs came out, then the leeches were coming out of everywhere – I wasn’t hallucinating.’
“I spent all day battling away the leeches, screaming for help.”
He was taken to hospital, suffering from broken legs and a shattered knee.
In February 2021, a friend of Paul’s said the actor had started a relationship with his ex-partner while living under his roof.
Robert Selby said Paul began a relationship with former lap dancer Hemma Kathrecha after he offered the actor a place to stay.
“I wish I’d never met him,” Robert told the Sun.
Hemma reportedly dumped Paul after only a few months but the pair were photographed together two weeks later, leading to speculation the romance was back on.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
