Deal or No Deal star got hooked on cocaine after all-night party during filming

A Deal Or No Deal contestant got hooked on cocaine as he filmed for the ITV game show.

Conor Cooper, 33, had never tried the drug before, but was “completely wired” on one show after partying until 7am.

The dad of one got hooked after finding “a huge pile” of the Class A drug on a table at a party near the contestants’ hotel.

Full of bravado after vodka- Red Bulls and shots, he tucked into the cocaine then had no sleep before filming his next set of shows.

Conor, who says his month-long stint on the show led to a £600-a-week habit, said: “I’d never done that stuff before. I’m ashamed. I got caught up in the moment.

“It was like I was being given a taste of what the showbiz life was like. I was out of my comfort zone and living in the moment being on telly for the first time.”

Contestants on the hit ITV quiz stay at the four-star hotel from Monday to Friday each week.

They have breakfast and dinner together and are shuttled to and from Maidstone Studios in Kent.

Conor said: “It was a wild party and I’d been drinking.

“By the time I got back to the hotel, it was seven in the morning and we were picked up to film in the studio at 8am.

“I was dreading that show going out. I was still completely wired when we filmed and we recorded three games that day.

“Me and the other contestants, some of whom had been drinking heavily that night as well, still speak about it now over WhatsApp.

“It’ll be so obvious when it’s shown on telly that we hadn’t slept and were all in a really bad state.”

Following the party, Conor began spending up to £600 a week on the drug and did it most evenings.

There is no suggestion any other contestants or production staff became involved in his drug binges.

After getting the number for a local dealer in Kent, he said his habit really spiralled out of control, he added: “I hold my hands up that I should never have started buying it.

“But the party culture there meant that we would all start having drinks and the next thing I would be secretly ordering it to keep myself going.

“I’d be so tired because I didn’t sleep at night and then had to go filming, then we would end up drinking again that evening and I’d do it all over again. It was a bad routine to be stuck in.”

He added: “We were allowed two drinks a day for free in the hotel but those who didn’t use theirs would hand them to us.

“Then I’d be forking out for my own booze before carrying on outside the hotel. I just thought I was a TV star and dived in with both feet. It was really stupid.”

Conor won £13,500 playing the Deal Or No Deal Banker on his final show, filmed on October 22.

He returned to his day job as a tarmac worker in Portsmouth and found out his partner of 17 years was expecting twins a month later.

The news gave him a “kick up the arse” to seek drug counselling.

He added: “When I left the show, I was still buying cocaine every week.

“Thankfully it didn’t go on long before we found out we were expecting and that was the wake-up call I needed.

“I told my partner, and she was mortified. I felt I’d let her down.”

His partner urged him to get professional help and he began attending group drug counselling.

Asked if he had sought help from ITV, he said: “I didn’t at the time because I wasn’t sure who I could trust. We did mental health assessments before we started filming but I didn’t know who to talk to.”

Former contestants have told how they would regularly go out on the lash after filming the show – hosted on ITV by Stephen Mulhern since 2023, following its revival from Noel Edmonds’ Channel 4 original from 2005 to 2016.

Sally Kettle, the first woman to win just 1p in 2009, has said: “It was just weird. A bit cultish. The whole experience was really cultish.

“When you’re in the bubble, you’re in the hotel together, you’re on the game together, you’re in each other’s pockets for what can be weeks, people are coming in and you’re with them on that emotional journey. It’s really full-on, really, really intense.”

She compared the party culture of some contestants to “being a student in freshers’ week”.

Sally added: “During the evening, the winners of the day, you’d go drinking with them.

“It was very, very party, and that’s not really me, anyway.

“So when you got into a cycle of celebrating, drinking, sleeping, getting up, it’s quite institutional and it’s a bit weird.”

Sally admitted the experience is “very different now” because more psychological support is available.

Another ex-contestant Nong Skett described filming as full-on, and said participants would spend the evenings “hanging out and getting to know each other”.

She said: “I think I was there for two weeks, and you do three shows a day. You stay in the hotel together, you get on a bus, you go to the studio, and you’re there for the day, then you get on the bus and go back.”

The family-friendly gameshow also faced several contestant scandals during its first run.

Plasterer Andy Barker, who scooped £35,000, was jailed in 2013 after splashing his winnings on holidays, jewellery and golf trips – despite being declared bankrupt five months earlier.

He should have declared the cash to help pay back the £60,000 he owed to creditors.

A viewer who watched his TV triumph tipped off authorities.

Another participant Karl Rose, from Coventry, who won £20,000 on the show in 2009, was arrested when police found half a kilo of cannabis in a car owned by an accomplice five years later.

Officers discovered more than £25,000 in cash when they searched his home.

He said it was from his Deal or No Deal winnings but the claim was rejected in court. Det Con Greg Ashfield said at the time: “We found plenty of evidence showing that Rose was actively dealing drugs and that the cash we found in a holdall was money derived from selling cannabis.”

Mum-of-two Caroline Banana, from Stoke-on-Trent, became embroiled in a benefits scandal after failing to declare her £95,000 winnings from the hit show.

The Department for Work and Pensions received an anonymous tip-off after someone spotted her on the telly.

In response to Conor’s story, a Deal Or No Deal spokesperson said: “We have a zero-tolerance policy on drug use on all our productions.

“Contestants stay at the hotel for short periods of time whilst filming and are closely monitored by a specialist welfare team throughout.

“Having reviewed logs of activity and welfare assessments, we can find no record of any behaviour that would cause concern.”