Julian Clary admits he was ‘engulfed in melancholy’ when he delivered his career-ending Norman Lamont joke at The Comedy Awards as he reveals he’d ‘taken a Valium backstage’ earlier than making the jibe

Julian Clary has revealed he was ‘engulfed in melancholy’ when he made his now-infamous joke about Norman Lamont at The Comedy Awards, after a string of personal tragedies.

The comedian, 66, saw his career grind to a halt when he made a famous jibe about the chancellor of the exchequer during the ceremony, and has now shared he’d ‘taken a valium backstage’ before making the comment.

Julian had taken to the stage at the 1993 ceremony soon after Lamont had presented an award, and said: ‘As a matter of fact, I’ve just been fi****g Norman Lamont,’ before pausing and adding: ‘Talk about a red box.’

While the comment earned a raucuous reaction from the live audience, it sparked outrage in the aftermath, and Julia shared all his work offers dried up.

Reflecting on the troubles he was enduring at the time, Julian said that at the time he was battling drug addiction, as well as the grief of losing his boyfriend Christopher to AIDS two years earlier.

He said that at his worst he was taking Rohypnol at night, and Valium during the day ‘when he was really in trouble, having panic attacks all the time’.

Julian Clary has revealed he was ‘engulfed in melancholy’ when he made his now-infamous joke about Norman Lamont at The Comedy Awards, after a string of personal tragedies

The comedian saw his career grind to a halt when he made a famous jibe about the chancellor of the exchequer during the ceremony

He told The Sunday Times Magazine: ‘Yes, it was all tied up with Christopher and drugs and everything going wrong.’

Julian added: ‘If you’re looking for a reason for everything this is a bit neat but perhaps it was a way to clear my diary in order to recover.’

In the aftermath, Julian said he got clean of drugs and received counselling, and began to rebuild his career in 1996 when he appeared in his BBC Two series All Rise for Julian Clary.

The star said he ‘doesn’t miss’ drugs and finds it ‘nice’ to be clear-headed and in recent years he’s settled down with his husband Ian Mackley, who he married in 2018.

Julian is set to star alongside Dawn French and Nigel Havers in The London Palladium’s pantomime Sleeping Beauty.

Known for his outlandish costumes, the show also marks a decade since Julian first joined the capital’s annual Christmas show, and despite admitting it is ‘well-paid,’ he said: ‘I do it for the love of it.’ 

It comes after Julian shared that he had tried using a weight loss drug to slim down, having admitted he was ‘early on the Botox train.’

Speaking to The Telegraph, he said: ‘I did try it. It’s not for me. I got terribly ill.’

Reflecting on the troubles he was enduring at the time, Julian said that at the time he was battling drug addiction, as well as the grief of losing his boyfriend Christopher to AIDS

‘Well, everyone else is on it. What it basically does is slow down your digestion, so food is inside you for a lot longer. My body didn’t like that. Reflux. I think often these things are too good to be true.’

Julian previously spent a decade dividing his time between London and Goldenhurst, a 17th-century manor and gardens near Ashford.

But unlike his longtime friend Paul O’Grady, Julian said he wasn’t as taken to living on a farm, telling the publication: ‘Muddy, isn’t it? 

‘No pavements, no streetlights… I sort of enjoyed it as a contrast to here, but I sold it just before lockdown, and if I’d been able to choose where to spend lockdown, it wouldn’t have been the country.’