Hollyoaks star Davinia Taylor on being best mates with Kate Moss and how rehab turned her life around
Davinia reveals what happened on those wild nights with the Primrose Hill set and why she ditched them for school runs and herbal tea
YOU couldn’t pick up a newspaper in the mid-1990s without reading yet another story about the hedonistic antics of the Primrose Hill set, named after the upmarket area of north London where its A-list celeb members lived.
Kate Moss, Sadie Frost and Meg Matthews were key players, alongside actress Davinia Taylor, who was rarely pictured without a glass of wine in hand.
The multimillionaire heiress to a toilet-paper empire, she shot to fame playing bad girl Jude Cunningham in Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks.
Off-screen, Davinia’s life was wilder than any scriptwriter’s storyline.
Drink-fuelled nights and 24-hour parties at Meg and Noel Gallagher’s house, Supernova Heights, became the stuff of legend – and Davinia, now 38, was at the heart of it.
In July 2003, she married football agent Dave Gardner at a £875,000 knees-up, with David Beckham as best man and wife Victoria and son Brooklyn among the A-list guests.
But seven years later, the champagne bubbles well and truly burst and Davinia’s world came crashing down as her marriage to Dave ended amid accusations of “unreasonable behaviour” on her part.
Davinia flew to South Africa, where she spent six months in rehab being treated for alcohol addiction.
Worse was to come when her ex was given custody of their son Gray, now nine, after a bitter court battle.
There was even a failed suicide attempt.
She later described what happened, saying: “I slit my wrists and sat in the bath and no one came.”
Today, though, it couldn’t be more different for the former party girl.
Teetotal for six years, she admits this is the first photo shoot she has ever done sober.
While Kate Moss continues to party hard, Davinia’s life revolves around the school run and herbal tea dates with a small group of friends in west London.
Four years ago, she also found love again with builder Matthew Leyden, 36.
The pair have two children together, Asa, two, and Jude, seven months (Davinia also has a son, Lux, five, but has never identified his father).
And, after years in the showbiz wilderness, the actress is reprising her iconic Hollyoaks role for a few weeks only this autumn.
It was a huge decision. And not one she took lightly.
We sit down to talk rehab, broken friendships and Hollywood A-lister Liv Tyler being her son’s stepmum.
Are you nervous about being back in the limelight?
Totally. Although, I don’t drink any more, so I won’t be doing anything stupid! Hollyoaks is a family show – I didn’t want to do anything too sexy or controversial because I’m a mum of four now.
What made you give up drinking and go into rehab?
I had 15 years of glitz and glamour. It was exciting, but eventually you don’t have a choice and you have to drink because you’re addicted. That’s a real drag.
How did you find rehab?
It was like school because you have to re-learn about yourself. Drinking is a coping mechanism. Nobody wants to be drunk and act stupidly.
Have you swapped your addiction from alcohol to something healthier?
If I don’t do high-intensity interval training classes for an hour every morning and yoga a few days a week, I get depressed.
What else do you do to keep in shape?
I mainly eat Paleo [aka the Caveman Diet]. I sleep with castor oil and clingfilm wrapped around my stomach. It’s amazingly slimming because it detoxes your system. I also regularly cleanse my liver. You have a colonic [irrigation] and then drink camomile tea, Epsom salts and grapefruit juice blended with olive oil. You feel as energetic as Bonnie Langford afterwards.
Are you happy with your size 10-12 frame?
I’ve decided to get my [breast] implants taken out. They’re a DD, but I’m going back to my natural B-cup. I’ll have scars, but that’s OK. I’m unlikely to go topless on a super-yacht any more!
Do you have happy memories of the 1990s?
So many! We [Davinia and Dave] were living at Supernova Heights when the doorbell went at 3am. It was Liam Gallagher. He goes: “Thank god for this place. It’s like a church, it’s always open. Crack open a bottle, I’ve got the new Oasis album to play you. We’ve just made it!”
Sadie lived opposite and we’d run in and out of each other’s houses.
I remember when Naomi Campbell was hanging out with world leaders like Nelson Mandela and she told me: “I’m collecting presidents!”
They were some of the most creative, fashionable, high-end and funny people. It was electric. Some were even teetotal, like David Walliams.
Not everyone was face down in the gluten-free pasta!
When you became sober did you have to dump your party friends, like Kate Moss?
It evolved naturally. The people who stayed in touch with me are my friends now. It’s a tiny group, which includes Jenny Frost [from Atomic Kitten].
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Are you not hurt that some of your former celebrity friends haven’t stayed in touch?
No, because they’re still in the zone. You’re blinkered and just taking yourself to your next hit. There was no break-up or fighting between us.
Your divorce from Dave became tricky after you went through a custody battle in 2010…
We didn’t have a conscious uncoupling! I said to my son: “Don’t get married before you’re 30,” because I don’t think any of us know who we are in our 20s.
How are things between you now?
We’ve now got a 50-50 share of our son Gray. He gets away with murder because of miscommunication like: “I did my homework at Dad’s.” I’d have my kids with me all the time, but at weekends the older two go to their dads’.
Have you met Dave’s new fiancée Liv Tyler yet?
No, but Gray tells me: “She’s alright and makes me eat loads of vegetables.” It sounds like she’s a responsible stepmum, so that’s fabulous.
Do you think you will you ever meet her?
I don’t think so. She’s marrying my ex-husband and who really wants to hang out with their ex? I’m happy for him.
You’re now engaged to Matthew. How did you meet?
I’ve known Matthew forever. We were both divorced and he was doing some work on my house four years ago and didn’t leave! I’m smitten. I need to lose this baby weight, so we’re thinking a low-key wedding. It might be a registry office in November with the kids.
Why have you agreed to go back to Hollyoaks?
I thought I’d have to say no because the boys are at school in London. But I’m renovating my mum’s house in Cheshire [Hollyoaks is filmed in Liverpool], so it was perfect during the summer holidays.
Had you planned to go back to acting?
No. Mum and I opened a hair salon but then she got breast cancer and we had to close it. I was breastfeeding Jude, feeling miserable and unproductive and thinking: “This is my life until the menopause.” It’s been a messy few years, but it’s exciting to get this chance.
Watch Hollyoaks, weeknights, 6.30pm, Channel 4 & 7pm, E4.