Fallen AFL star Ben Cousins has reflected on his meth addiction and time in jail in an explosive new documentary.
The former West Coast Eagle opened up on his tumultuous journey from winning the 2005 Brownlow Medal to ending up a drug addict, homeless and eventually behind bars.
‘I’ve stuffed things up royally,’ Cousins said.
‘Coming Clean’ will premiere on Channel 7 on March 29, and features a lengthy interview with Basil Zempilas, where the 41-year-old opens up on his recovery process and his fight against his demons.
Ben Cousins has reflected on his meth addiction and jail time in the explosive new documentary ‘Coming Clean’. Pictured playing for the Richmond Tigers in 2010
Zempilas spent a week with Cousins before the interview and said he was ‘shocked’ at the former superstar’s honesty.
‘I’m close to the Ben Cousins story and have been for a long time now. I didn’t think anything he could say would surprise me, but even I was shocked,’ he said.
‘It’s explosive, compelling and emotional. With everything we’ve seen and read the natural inclination is to write Ben off but despite his struggles he remains remarkably resilient. It’s a battle but I wouldn’t bet against him.’
Cousins and his family approached the Seven network for the interview as an important step in Cousins recovery and rehabilitation.
The 238-game veteran wasn’t paid for the interview, which will be the first time he has spoken out on his personal troubles in a decade since his raw 2010 film ‘Such Is Life’.
‘I’m a drug addict, just flat-out. Yeah, I was drug-f**ked,’ Cousins said in 2010.
Ben Cousins was seen giving the thumps up with West Coast Eagles player Nic Naitanui earlier this month
Cousins will open up for the first time since his 2010 documentary in a tell all interview with Channel Seven
Cousins arrives at Fremantle Magistrates Court in Perth in January 2017
‘It was fast, it was good. They were good times. Alcohol wasn’t the big thing for me at the time. It was all about drugs for me.
‘I wouldn’t have butter on my toast, let alone a truck load of beer… (but) I’d take drugs and I would train and f***king train and obsess and play good footy.
‘I knew that at the end of that one week block, two week block or sometimes on the month, I would start to absolutely annihilate and launch into as much drugs as I could.’
The new documentary features a tennis match between Cousins and Fremantle midfielder Nat Fyfe, where Cousins talked of how important tennis became for him in jail, before beating Fyfe in a best of three match.
‘Benny, he’s the best,’ Fyfe said. ‘You don’t win the Brownlow Medal unless you are the best in the country.’
Cousins also meets with Essendon coach John Worsfold in the documentary, who coached Cousins during his tenure at the Eagles.
Ben Cousins (pictured playing for the West Coast Eagles in 2005) was once one of the biggest superstars in the AFL before his dramatic downfall
Cousins’s career started to plummet in a downwards spiral in 2007, where he was administered into a drug rehab facility in the U.S. and was later charged with drug offences.
After the charges were dropped, Cousins was sacked from the Eagles and banned from AFL for a year.
In 2009 he was re-signed by the Richmond Tigers but retired a year later and released a documentary detailing his struggles, ‘Such is Life: The Troubled Times of Ben Cousins’.
In the ten years since ended his football career, Cousins found himself in and out of court over drug offences.
In January 2018, Cousins was released from prison after serving 10 months of the one-year sentence for breaching a restraining order taken out by his former partner Maylea Tinecheff.
Cousins (pictured with former partner Maylea Tinecheff) has broken his silence about his downfall
Cousins spent two stints behind bars after being charged with drug possession in 2017 and 2018
He was offered a job working with his former club the West Coast Eagles in a ‘community and game development’ role but left departed the role within months after reportedly failing to turn up for work on multiple occasions.
Cousins was back in jail months later following charges of drug possession, making threats and breaking a violence restraining order.
He spent eight months in jail until his release on bail last April.
Cousins was in March fined $1,750 for possessing meth and hiding it up his anus.
Cousins booted 205 goals for the West Coast Eagles, where he won a premiership with the club in 2006.
The Richmond Tigers gave Cousins a second chance in 2009 after his one-year ban, where he played 32 more games and 12 more goals before he retired in 2010.
‘I’ll always regret what I’ve put my family through. There’s a lot of shame and regret. People wonder why I haven’t broken down or shed a tear (in public). My tears are something that I hold close to me; they’re for me and my family,’ Cousins said at his retirement announcement.
THE TROUBLED LIFE AND TIMES OF BEN COUSINS:
1996 – Makes AFL debut with West Coast and is named the league’s Rising Star
2001 – Named club captain of West Coast at age 23
2002 – Breaks his arm falling down a flight of stairs at a nightclub months after punching his teammate Daniel Kerr
2005 – (May) Is quizzed by police about association with underworld identities
– (September) Wins Brownlow medal as the AFL’s best and fairest player
Cousins after the 2006 AFL Grand Final
2006 – (February) Swims across a Perth river to escape a booze bus
– (September) Wins AFL premiership with the Eagles
– (December) Is arrested after passing out in front of Melbourne’s Crown Casino and spends four hours in jail
2007 – (March) Suspended by West Coast after missing training session
– (April) Goes to a drug rehabilitation facility in the US
– (October) Revealed to have visited fellow Eagles legend Chris Mainwaring twice on the night he died of a drug overdose
– (October) Arrested and charged with drug offences that are later dropped
– (November) Eventually sacked by West Coast and banned from the AFL for one year
2008 – AFL re-registers Cousins and he is signed by Richmond
2010 – Retires from the AFL but releases autobiography and documentary
Cousins has been charged with drug possession and refusing a drug test in 2007, but the charges were later dropped
2015 – Arrested three times before leading police on a slow-speed car chase
2016 – (June) Spotted behaving erratically and directing traffic on a highway
– (October) In and out of court over drug offences and breaches a restraining order taken out by his ex-partner
2017 – Jailed for one year for breaching restraining order by calling his ex-lover thousands of times
2018 – (January) Released from jail on parole just 10 months into his sentence
He takes up a community support role with the West Coast Eagles – a requirement of his parole conditions
– (May): Reports emerge he hasn’t been seen at the club for a month
The club confirms the he told officials in April he no longer wanted the job
– (August) Arrested and charged with drug possession and breaching a restraining order
2019 – (February) He was fined $1,750 for possessing meth and hiding it up his anus while in jail
(March) Cousins pleaded not guilty to 14 offences in court, including breaching a family violence restraining order and a count each of aggravated stalking and threatening to injure, endanger or harm
(April) Cousins is released from jail on bail after eight months inside.