Julian Clary has opened up about the deep sense of melancholy he was experiencing when he delivered his notorious quip about Norman Lamont during The Comedy Awards. This candid revelation comes in the wake of personal tragedies that had weighed heavily on him.

The 66-year-old comedian saw his career come to a sudden halt following a bold joke aimed at the then-Chancellor of the Exchequer. Clary has now disclosed that he had taken a Valium before stepping onto the stage, which may have influenced his infamous remark.

During the 1993 awards ceremony, shortly after Lamont presented an award, Clary took the microphone and quipped, “As a matter of fact, I’ve just been f****g Norman Lamont,” and followed up with, “Talk about a red box.” The comment drew boisterous laughter from the audience but led to significant backlash afterward.

In the wake of the controversy, Clary found himself facing a professional drought as job offers quickly evaporated. He has since reflected on the turbulent period in his life, revealing that he was grappling with drug addiction while mourning the loss of his boyfriend, Christopher, who had passed away from AIDS two years prior.

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.’