Boasting a titanic frame and a stare which would make the legs of men squaring up to him turn to jelly, Shadow was one of the most impressive stars of Gladiators.
The bodybuilder, real name Jefferson King, quickly became a favourite of the 15 million fans who turned in to watch the ITV show every Saturday alongside presenters Ulrika Jonsson and former England footballer John Fashanu.
The original show ran from 1992 to 2000 but King was axed in 1994 after being accused of taking cocaine in a London nightclub.
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The 61-year-old’s life then spiralled into one of drug abuse, culminating in a six-year prison sentence for his part in a blackmail plot.
Back in 2015, King spoke openly about how his fortunes had taken a nosedive since he was axed from Gladiators.
He revealed how he wasn’t invited to a Gladiators reunion in 2015 and was virtually erased from the show’s history for taking drugs.
He told the Mirror: “I felt like a leper after Gladiators. I was on the biggest programme there was – bigger than Blind Date and Noel’s House Party. People were rushing home to see Gladiators on a Saturday night.
“Then after I was fired… people saw me differently. It felt like I’d had a life and then all of a sudden I didn’t.”
King was axed from the show after being accused of taking cocaine. Programme maker LWT’s official reason was that he had tested positive for steroids.
He claims the shock sacking was the start of the show’s demise.
He said: “It was no coincidence that when I was on the show there were 15 million viewers and after that, there were ten million at best.
“The bosses used to say no one person was bigger than the show but I proved them all wrong.
“I was the ultimate challenge. I was going to damage you.
“The only drugs I took were steroids. The show’s bosses wanted superhumans to go up against normal members of the public. Many of us were from the bodybuilding world and steroids were part of that world for a lot of people.”
King was overlooked at a mini-reunion during an episode of Stephen Mulhern’s The Saturday Night Show when ITV bosses didn’t invite him. But he shrugged it off, saying: “I’m not that fussed. I’m used to not getting invited to things now.”
Born in London, at the age of 14 King moved to New York, where he began lifting weights but then started using crack cocaine.
He later returned to England where he continued to feed his addiction before kicking the habit and focusing on bodybuilding, which led to him getting a call from Gladiators producers.
But after splitting from his wife in the wake of the show’s drugs scandal, King found himself camped on friends’ sofas in London, where his addiction spiralled.
He said: “My worst low was a few years after Gladiators. I started doing more and more drugs and had to fund my habit by working as a manual labourer.”
One of his worst jobs during this time was working as a gravedigger in Greenford, West London.
He said: “It was very hard and messy. Once you broke through the topsoil you hit clay and then it was tough.
“For eight hours a day I had to clean weeds and tidy up too. But I gave it up after seven weeks. It was just far too much to bear.”
Soon work took a backseat altogether as King began to ramp up the amount of crack cocaine and heroin he was smoking.
He said: “I had become a full-time crackhead. I lived in the darkness and dug holes so deep I could not get out.
“The withdrawals were terrible. I’d be hot and cold, shaking.”
As the drugs robbed him of his energy and motivation, King said he couldn’t train anymore and was too ashamed to talk about his TV past.
To fund his addiction King turned to crime and loans from his family.
During his last interview in 2015, King claimed he had turned his life around and had enrolled in a drug rehabilitation course called Intuitive Recovery.
He became a personal trainer and worked nights restocking ambulances with medical equipment.
He even hoped to relaunch his TV career with a stint in the I’m a Celebrity jungle.
But his plans to get on the road to recovery were left in tatters when he was jailed for six years and three months last year for his part in a blackmail plot.
The former bodybuilder was caged at Isleworth Crown Court after admitting taking part in the drug-fuelled plan over a debt.
King was was one of four people who kept a man detained in a flat in Acton, West London, during a torturous attack lasting around eight hours.
He was described as a “lieutenant” to the plot and had demanded £1,000 last year from a mum for the safe return of her son who was allegedly being held hostage by a gang.
Three other defendants, so-called ringleader Simon Batson, Donna Harman, and Otis Noel, were also sentenced for their role in the plot.
King, whose mugshot showed him looking gaunt and drawn, is said to have showed no emotion as he was sent down.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
