Danny Cipriani has revealed he spent time at The Priory after being rushed to hospital when he hit his head open on a step.
The sports star, 35, has made some explosive confessions about his drinking and drug history in his new autobiography, Who Am I?.
In further extracts obtained by The sunhe revealed that his wife Victoria Rose, 42, sent him to a rehabilitation and psychiatric hospital after he fractured his own skull.
Danny explained that he had overdone taking magic mushrooms and became convinced Victoria was trying to kill him in 2020.
He recalled, “I stand at the top of a stone staircase in the garden thinking, ‘The only way to escape this horrible experience is to let go”. So I stick my arms out, lean back, fall over and hit my head against the edge of a step.
Subject: Danny Cipriani has revealed his wife Victoria sent him to The Priory after he was rushed to hospital when he smashed his head on a step (pictured together in 2020)
Brutally honest: The sports star, 35, has made some explosive confessions about his history with drink and drugs in his new autobiography, Who Am I? (pictured in 2021)
“Victoria hears my skull crack and thinks she can hear gas escaping. She’s crying hysterically because she thinks I’m dead.’
He said she called an ambulance to rush him to hospital, but he remained convinced there was a “great conspiracy” to hurt him, involving his wife and all the nurses.
Danny said, “I’m losing a lot of blood, but I won’t let any of them touch me. I still think Victoria is trying to kill me, but she’s the only person I want close to.’
He explained that after his discharge, Victoria put him up in the Priory for a week, where he lost a lot of weight after barely eating.
He added: ‘When I go for a walk in the garden, the flowers and the birds don’t seem real. When I finally come out of this journey, I realize that fear was the driving force. The fear of not being loved, the fear of not being enough. That told me there were still plenty of hidden traumas that needed to be dug up and searched.”
It comes after Danny reveals how he almost died after being hit by a bus and believes his belated actions saved him from a fatal accident on a night out.
The former England rugby international was out on a night out with a group of Sale Sharks teammates a decade ago when a moment of drunken frenzy caused him to cross the road and jump into the path of an oncoming bus.
Danny was taking part in a pub crawl known as the Otley Run with his colleagues at the time and in his attempts to run away from one of the group got out in front of a bus.
Terrifying: Danny explained that he had fractured his own skull after dousing it with magic mushrooms and became convinced Victoria was trying to kill him
Confused: He said she called an ambulance to rush him to hospital, but remained convinced there was a ‘great conspiracy’ to hurt him, involving his wife and all the nurses
Struggles: He explained that after his discharge, Victoria placed him in the Priory for a week, where he lost a lot of weight after barely eating
He explained how he has struggled with alcohol and drugs in the past and believes he was lucky to escape with his life after the incident.
In his memoirs he described the harrowing encounter: ‘What’s the worst that could happen? We’ve almost reached the last pub of the tour and I’m a little over-enthusiastic. I sneak up behind one of the guys, slap him on the back of the head and he starts chasing me.
“I run on, look over my shoulder, and when I get to a bus stop, I look to my right, see a bus coming, assume it’s stopping, and run for it. TREE!
“If I hadn’t instinctively jumped at the last second and slammed into the window of the bus, instead of the grille, I would have been wiped out. Legs crushed, maybe killed.
“As it is now, I’m lying flat on my back on a stretcher, surrounded by paramedics. Not only did I have a concussion, but I also tore the medial collateral ligament in my knee,” he added.
Not so bad, the season is over anyway. When I get out of the hospital I can’t resist tweeting, “Tough night. It feels like I’ve been hit by a bus…”
He adds, “People laugh about it, and that’s what I wanted. But nobody asks me how I’m really doing.’
The bus’s windshield was shattered as it bore the heaviest force of the collision with Danny and buckled inward as contact was made.
Near miss: It comes after Danny revealed how he almost died after being hit by a bus and believes his belated actions saved him from a fatal accident on a night out (pictured on crutches after a collision in 2014)
Collision: The former England rugby international was on a night out with a group of Sale Sharks teammates a decade ago when a moment of drunken frenzy sent him sprinting across the road and into the path of an oncoming bus (pictured in 2014 with Sale Sharks)
Paramedics rushed to the scene and he was taken to Leeds General Infirmary in an ambulance before being discharged on crutches.
Fortunately, the fly-half survived and made a full recovery, allowing him to continue his career in the sport.
However, Danny explained that after the collision, he still takes a prescription painkiller called Tramadol, but openly admits that he eventually wants to stop taking the medication.