Jason Donovan has revealed how Kylie Minogue begged him to go out with her... and they first had sex in a Travelodge hotel room.
He says his soap co-star was his first love and he was heartbroken when she dumped him for Michael Hutchence.
And the pain of the split was made worse because it was Jason who took Kylie to the INXS gig where she first met the band’s frontman.
In his frankest interview ever, for Piers Morgan’s Life Stories TV show, the clean-cut actor and pop star shockingly reveals how low he sank into drug addiction, snorting up to 30 lines of cocaine a day.
And he confesses that he became desperately jealous of Kylie’s fame and fortune as her pop career skyrocketed.
“She chased me and then I guess I gradually gave in,” says Jason, 43. “The next thing you know we were working and having this relationship.
“At the time it was great. We cemented it in a Sydney Travelodge. There were a number of promotional trips we would do each weekend and the Travelodge was the place.
“Travelodges in those days were posh places.
“I did not lose my virginity to her though. I knew I was in love with her when she became successful on her own. It was a jealousy thing.
“I could see her slipping away. I am sure it happened before that but it was not until I could see her going off in one direction I thought I was going to lose her.”
Jason also talks about how his family saved him from self-destruction, his regret over suing a magazine which claimed he was gay and the real reasons behind his hair transplant.
Jason and Kylie were teenagers when they first met on the set of Aussie soap Neighbours in 1986, playing on-screen lovers Scott and Charlene.
Two years later they released the duet Especially For You, which went to number one in the UK.
They are expected to perform it together for the first time in more than 10 years this summer at a concert to celebrate the Eighties.
But Jason confesses that as Kylie’s pop career went from strength to strength, with huge hits including I Should Be So Lucky, their relationship hit the rocks.
Jason says: “I guess it is hard for a young man as you think you are the success story and the breadwinner, but then suddenly she is off on a different course. We did live together for a while and there was a lot of chemistry between us. This was the first time I had truly been in love with someone.
“That is a very powerful emotion to have, coupled with the fact that you are one of the most successful and talked-about couples in Australia, which was our backyard at the time. We argued a lot about her wanting to go off and do other things.”
Asked if he wanted to replicate their on-screen wedding in real life, Jason, who is now friends with Kylie again, says: “Probably, yeah, probably I wanted that at the time.”
Jason, who admits he “wanted to be Michael Hutchence”, was with Kylie when she met the rocker for the first time, at an INXS concert.
“That is where the relationship began,” he recalls. Kylie dumped Jason in a phone call in 1989 while she was in Japan and he was in New York.
He says: “I later found out from my manager that they had met up in Hong Kong and I did not take it easily.
“For a male it’s a difficult thing to deal with to be dropped by a woman, but not only a woman but someone of her status. I took it hard. But what does not break you makes you stronger and I had an incredible network of people. She did try to explain to me once at a party at my house in Notting Hill.
“But you move on. I never went to an INXS concert after that.”
Jason went on to release a string of hit singles before becoming a star in the West End playing the lead in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. But as his fame grew, he developed a dangerous drug habit. It started with cannabis, which he smoked on set while filming Neighbours.
He admits: “There probably was one incident. But they swapped the order of scenes around. I was not flying but I was under the influence.” Jason swiftly moved on to harder drugs including cocaine. He says: “I took about three grammes a day, maybe more. That’s 20 to 30 lines. That’s proper addiction.
“I did not think about the cost. You take the drug to be euphoric. It’s a very sexually empowering experience but in the end you become isolated. It’s like one of those cats who chases its tail. In the end you become the lonely guy in the hotel room. What I can say is that I don’t do it any more.”
His addiction came to a head at Kate Moss’s 21st birthday party in 1995 at the Viper Room club in Los Angeles, where he collapsed.
Ironically he was saved by Michael Hutchence, who was found dead in a hotel room two years later aged 37.
Jason recalls: “When I got to LA I got home to coke there, it was extremely strong and I spent my whole time in my hotel room and went to the party.
“I had a seizure and I don’t remember anything. It’s not comfortable seeing those images.
“Michael took the drugs off me that night and got me into the ambulance. It was good of him to do that.”
Jason finally beat his drug addiction when he settled down with wife Angela, 40, in 1998.
They married in 2008 and have three children, Jemma, 12, Zach, 11, and one-year-old Molly.
“Once Jemma was born things started to dilute,” he says. “Drugs were no longer the priority. Gradually I ended up falling out of love with cocaine and in love with my daughter and back in love with the woman who changed the landscape of my life.
“Getting married made us stronger and it is great for the kids. She is the love of my life.
“I saved my life, but she was a woman who came round and stood up to me and made me accountable.”
Jason caused controversy in 1992 when he sued the now-defunct magazine The Face, which had suggested he was gay.
His libel action was successful and he originally won £300,000 in compensation and costs. But it caused a furious backlash.
“I would not do it again,” he says. “I won the battle but I did not win the war. I wanted The Face to take my career to the next step, but I snookered myself.”
He says that after the case he was sworn at outside the court.
“I was refused entry to nightclubs, I had paint sprayed on my car. It was an extremely vicious revolt against me. It made me grow up relatively quickly.”
But while Jason may well be content with life now, he admits there was an area in which he did lack confidence – his hair.
So much so that he recently had a hair transplant.
Jason says: “If women can have breast implants then why can’t men have hair implants? I have had them, yes I have.
“I used to have a great mullet from the days of Michael Bolton. I am one of the original mulleteers.
“I don’t know why I had a haircut like that. It was probably watching too many Bon Jovi videos.
“Yes, I started losing my hair when I was 23.
“It’s all about confidence and feeling good about yourself. If that is what you want to do, then do it.”
??THE full interview with Jason can be seen on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories, to be screened on ITV later this year.