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Gladiators‘ bbc The reboot has been a great success with the launch show that reached 8.7 million viewers last month, but it has not avoided controversy.
Gigante, from the new cast of superhumans, whose real name is Jamie Christian-Johal made headlines after the show’s return when it resurfaced. Youtube The videos allegedly showed the strongman talking about using class C drugs to “stimulate muscles.”
He said, however, that he no longer uses steroids after quitting them more than a year ago.
Such controversies were a feature of the show’s previous cast and several of the original stars spent time in prison.
Discover below all the former Gladiators whose lives went astray…
The original Gladiators became household names, but some cast members went missing after the ITV show ended in 2000.
The new Gladiators have already had a taste of controversy when videos of Giant (pictured) resurfaced purportedly showing the strongman talking about using class C drugs to “stimulate muscles”.
A court heard how Jefferson King, who under the nickname Shadow in his heyday, was involved in a blackmail plot after a day of smoking drugs “rapidly degenerated”.
Shadow’s drug-fueled blackmail plot
The original Gladiator named Shadow, whose real name is Jefferson King, was booted from the show two years later amid allegations that he took cocaine in a London nightclub.
However, according to the show’s creator, he left because he tested positive for steroids.
King reportedly began using cocaine from the age of 14 after moving to New York, and his addiction worsened after separating from his wife, after being dumped by the hit ITV show.
To finance his addiction, Jefferson took out loans from his family and became involved in crime.
In a 2015 interview he revealed that he had managed to turn his life around, but six years later, at age 60, he admitted to having participated in a drug-fueled blackmail plot.
He was sentenced to six years and three months after demanding £1,000 from the family of a 40-year-old man who had been taken hostage.
At one point, King is alleged to have ordered a co-defendant to “get a hammer to break his legs” after the victim, Aaron Ali, tried to flee.
So-called ringleaders Simon Batson, Donna Harman and Otis Noel were also convicted for their role in the plot in which Ali was held for about six and a half hours.
In 2018, embarrassed former gladiator Mike Ahearne, also known as Warrior, made headlines when a court heard police had caught him with shopping bags full of steroids and CS spray cans.
Guerrero in corruption scandal
After seven years earning up to £100,000 a year, Mike Ahearne’s world of luxury and celebrity came crashing down when he was linked to a corruption scandal.
Gladiator’s Warrior was arrested on March 13, 1997, accused of participating in a plot to thwart the prosecution of Philip Glennon Jr.
Glennon Jr was accused of shooting a bouncer and then a police officer outside a Liverpool nightclub the previous year and was charged with attempted murder.
He is the brother-in-law of Liverpool drug dealer Curtis Warren, who attempted to thwart the investigation by paying corrupt officer Chief Inspector Elmore ‘Elly’ Davies £10,000 to pass on details of what the police knew about the incident, when a doorman was also shot. .
Ahearne acted as a go-between passing money from Warren to his friend Davies, then head of the Merseyside drugs squad, for information about the case.
Following a trial at Nottingham Crown Court in 1998, at which Ahearne decided not to give evidence, the TV star was found guilty of an act tending to pervert the course of justice and jailed for 15 months.
Davies was sentenced to five years in prison, while a third man was sentenced to three years in prison.
Ahearne hit the headlines again in 2018 when a court heard police caught him with shopping bags full of steroids and CS spray cans.
Liverpool Magistrates Court heard police raided the then 59-year-old’s home in Rose Mount, Oxton, Wirral on January 23, 2018.
They recovered a large stash of various anabolic steroids, contained in a plastic Tesco bag, another shopping bag and two boxes.
Ahearne was arrested on suspicion of possession of Class C drugs with intent to supply, but no transport charges were laid.
But he was charged over the CS spray and admitted three counts of possession of a weapon “designed or adapted for the discharge of a noxious liquid”.
The former bodybuilder was sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for 12 months, at Liverpool Crown Court in October 2018 for the offences.
Having turned his back on showbiz, Warren has found God and is set to become a vicar, but admitted times were tough when he was on the show.
Ace’s alcohol habit
In 2022, Warren Furman, aka Ace, warned the show’s new cast ahead of their return, referencing his own struggles after leaving Gladiators.
The fan favorite admitted that while filming he struggled to control alcohol and steroid abuse after being thrust into the spotlight.
Earning a huge £2,000 an hour on the show, he said Sun: ‘My destructive decisions were slowly killing me.’
He added that the pressure of the spotlight “cursed” his budding relationship with glamor model Katie Price, then known as Jordan.
The couple got engaged in 1997, but throughout their nearly two-year relationship, each sold stories about their sex lives.
Things got ugly when Warren accused Katie of sleeping with Formula 1 driver Ralf Schumacher, Michael’s brother.
Ace lasted until the last original series of Gladiators in 2000, after which he suffered a dramatic drop in income, saying in 2019 that he was struggling to earn £20 an hour after leaving ITV.
However, having turned his life around, the former construction director revealed in January that he will become a vicar.