- The former Manly star spoke about his suffering from addiction
- Described moment when he realized he had to make a change.
Former football star Matthew Ridge has opened up about how starring in reality show Treasure helped save him from a methamphetamine addiction that began because the drug “went to the sexual side of my brain.”
The 56-year-old enjoyed a distinguished rugby and rugby league career, winning premiership in 1996 with Manly before becoming captain of the Auckland Warriors and the New Zealand national team.
He would retire in 1999 as New Zealand’s all-time leading scorer, scoring 168 points in 25 Test matches.
A career in broadcasting would be pursued by Ridge, who became a regular face of TVNZ, notably presenting the show Game of Two Halves alongside co-presenter Marc Ellis.
Talking about the Between Two Beers PodcastRidge made an open and honest disclosure about why he started using methamphetamine.
He said: ‘It’s amazing what a broken heart can do.
It baffles you. When you’re heartbroken you throw yourself into anything that makes you forget where you come from.
He revealed that he first took the drug during a trip to Japan.
‘I got hooked. “I didn’t get hooked on the effect, I got hooked on the fact that it went to the sexual side of my brain,” he said.
‘I was doing television, I was going to work, I was an active drug addict.
Matthew Ridge (pictured recently) has told how he became addicted to methamphetamine while suffering from a “broken heart”.
Ridge (second from right) said going on a reality show and his BMX helped him quit the deadly drug.
‘I’d get up in the morning, go to work, have meetings and all that shit, but then I’d just get on my bike and ride. And what saved me was riding horses, because I got very fit.
Ridge also said he was able to stop taking the medication fairly quickly, but he opened up about the daunting moment he realized he needed to make a change.
‘So I just stopped, because I can stop like that. “I don’t have an addictive personality,” he said.
He was approached by a New Zealand television producer star to participate in the reality show Treasure Island.
He would spend seven weeks filming for the show, during which time he did not use any drugs.
‘They showed me a photo of me on the island and there was no light in my eyes. She looked like she was dead. Like seeing how your eyes shine, my eyes shine, you are alive,’ he said.
‘That’s where I looked at it and thought, oh my God.
“I had to get away from everything because I could see I was going down a dark path.”
Ridge now hopes to inspire others who are going through a similar situation.
During his professional career, Ridge made 122 appearances for Manly at fullback, scoring a whopping 1093 points for the Sea Eagles with 32 tries and 477 conversions.
He left the Eagles in 1996 and returned to New Zealand to play for the Auckland Warriors, but admitted the transition was difficult.
“I had very high standards and came from the best team… I came back to a team that had no culture,” he said.
He later revealed that he felt “pushed into a role where I started coaching” in a bid to help improve the Warriors. But he added that many of his colleagues did not want to listen to him.
Despite this, he admitted that he does not regret joining the team.
“It made me resilient… and I met some really cool people,” she explained.
