Gordon Ramsay has opened up about his brother Ronnie, who has battled an addiction to heroin for years. The celebrity chef, 50, was telling Jonathan Ross about his new TV show, Gordon Ramsay on Cocaine, when he spoke about his troubled sibling. "I don't think there is any easy drug but when you stoop to the depths of heroin, it's very rare you get back," he admitted. "We've done everything we can to help him, now he just sort of binges and disappears so that's just a constant reminder and also being a father of four ourselves, you need to be there for them because this stuff is rife."
For his new ITV documentary, Gordon tested the guest and staff toilets in his restaurant for substances. Cocaine was found in both. "That's when the alarm bells started going," he said. "I called a meeting. I didn't throw anyone under the bus, I didn't single anyone out. I just said, 'Look, this is everywhere, it's spotted in the restaurants and it needs to stop.' Secondly, 'We don't want any more casualties. What do we need to put in place to stop anyone else's life being taken?'"
"I saw cocaine quite early on in my career," Gordon admitted
Gordon sadly lost a colleague – "an amazing young man" – to the drug. He revealed: "We had dinner the night before. He passed. I wish I'd seen signs earlier. Cooking at a level where everyone is under that pressure but you don't need that substance to continue. It was a big loss… I think the image today of a chef, I think everyone thinks it's this rock and roll lifestyle and you need that help, that substance."
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The chef's new two-part documentary explores the global cocaine trade and sees Gordon travel to South and Central America where anti-narcotics units are fighting the 'war on drugs'. Gordon meets hired assassins and a drug-smuggler and witnesses the immediate aftermath of a suspected cocaine-related murder, among other spine-chilling experiences.
The TV chef travelled to South and Central America for the documentary
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"I saw cocaine quite early on in my career," he admitted. "I've been served it. I've been given it. I've had my hand shaken and left with little wraps of foil in it. I've been asked to dust cocaine on top of soufflés, to put it on as icing sugar…Coke's everywhere. It's spiralling out of control."
The Jonathan Ross Show airs on Saturday at 10:20pm on ITV.