Jeremy McConnell celebrates two years since hitting rock bottom to transformation into director of Hair Of Istanbul
JEREMY McConnell is looking forward to spending Christmas Day sober – two years after lying on the floor of a jail cell at his lowest point.
The former reality star is now about to become a dad for the second time, with girlfriend Katie McCreath, and is working as the UK Director of Hair of Istanbul, two years after he was sent to prison for missing his community sentence to attend the clinic in Turkey for his own hair transplant.
And he says that spending Christmas Day behind bars in 2017 was the ‘wake up call’ he needed to set his life straight.
“I couldn’t get any lower,” says Jeremy.
“I had time to think and reflect on all my mistakes and the bad decisions I had made in my life, I just wanted to become the best version of me.
“Things had to change! I knew I needed time and the right environment to properly rehabilitate.”
Jeremy was jailed for 18 weeks for missing community service to get a hair and beard transplant at on November 23, 2017 – which is when he was at his lowest point.
The Celebrity Big Brother star had been staying with a friend in south Wales but Cardiff Magistrates heard he’d missed eight work appointments in the 200-hour order.
Although it was his first breach of his order made by the Magistrates Court at Liverpool, the court activated the suspended sentence for failing to comply with his punishment. Jeremy was sent immediately to the notorious HMP Cardiff, a category B prison which holds men up to and including those on life sentences.
Jeremy was set to spend Christmas – a time he says “is always a hard time” after he lost most of his immediate family - in the prison and saw his life continue to spiral downhill.
Jeremy's legal team, headed by his current partner Katie McCreath, secured his early release from prison and Jeremy served just 34 days behind bars and was picked up from prison by Katie.
Despite his release, Jeremy was forced to stay in Wales away from his home in Ireland on electronic tag and under probation for a further 12 months.
Jeremy was lucky to have secured a place to stay with a friend when on tag but admits that he found it extremely hard with no direction, work, close friends or family to support him.
Reflecting on the period after jail, Jeremy believes he was “literally sobering up after years of drink, drugs, a party lifestyle and a toxic relationship”. Jeremy knew he needed to make big changes in order to change his life.
Jeremy tried hard over the following year to stay out of the headlines, but admits it was an endless battle, every day was a battle, he knew he could not go back to the party lifestyle, Jeremy admits that he was 'lost' when he first became close friends with Katie and moved to the midlands.
“It is very difficult in the public eye to try and avoid people selling stories on you and for you to understand who your friends are,” he says.
“I do realise as it is what I signed up for when I entered the public eye, but I literally had to go under a rock to recover, I couldn’t speak to a lot of people as I didn’t know who to trust.
“It was a difficult time, but I am now truly healed and recovered as a person.”
Jeremy adds that he often looks back at the press and pictures, including a picture of him slumped on a park bench, to reflect on how much he has changed his life, and as a reminder that he must continue to move forward.
Jeremy’s partner Katie says: “Jeremy is extremely misunderstood in the press and by the public, he is a highly focused and driven individual, despite his losses he was as an aspiring semi-professional footballer and model, but was in a lot of pain given his past.
“For Jeremy it was about leaving the party side behind to find the real Jeremy again. I am a workaholic, but he is so focused on his work now, and on helping others, he always replied to his messages and he gets a lot of people asking for his advice on drug problems and mental health, he doesn’t broadcast it, but every day he is supporting others online.”
In July, following the news of Katie’s pregnancy, Jeremy flew to Turkey to meet ’s founders, Adem Köse and M. Fatih Akdemir, who set the company up in 2014.
Jeremy, says that he is getting anxious now in the weeks before the birth of his daughter, he wants everything to be perfect and since July he has been working on getting everything ready and perfect for the arrival of his daughter.
The reality star is fully refurbishing his home, preparing the perfect nursery, and has already got a family friendly car, which he already has a baby car seat fitted in. His new arrival’s pram is ready in the hall and he even helped pack Katie’s hospital bag.
Jeremy makes no bones about the fact that he still battles with his past and that he has to work hard to maintain focus and drive, but his week is about training hard at the gym and working hard for his job, rather than about partying at the weekend, Jeremy says he has had to change what makes him happy and he hopes his daughter will help him continue to be driven to improve himself.
“I had to reset my mind and shift my focus, I have to avoid certain situations and adapt my lifestyle,” he tells The Sun Online.
“I have a routine now that works for me. I love working, I came from a hardworking athletic background, so had to shift my focus back into what I knew.
“I was missing focus, I needed to forget the silly and bad habits.
“I am extremely overwhelmed that I’m having a baby girl, and have been able to be part of the journey. I was not able to do that with my boy, it’s been a special time, I just can’t wait for her to arrive now.”
Jeremy is planning on taking on most of the care of his new baby as he is lucky to be able to work from home, as Katie plans on getting straight back in to court, although Jeremy is going to be a stay at home dad, he says he does not plan on taking his foot off the gas with driving his own business career forward over the next year.
“Everyone’s goal is to be a success at what they do and maintain a happy family life,” he says.
“I believe I am now in that position, I want to expand into the UK and Europe, opening consultation offices and truly making the move to be a businessman.”
