rewrite this content and keep HTML tags
Former Home and Away star Jodi Gordon has shared a reflective post to mark her 39th birthday, looking back on her struggle with substance abuse.
The actress and model said that she battled the illness for “the most part of my life” before rehab completely transformed her life.
Gordon played Martha MacKenzie on the Channel 7 soap from 2005 to 2010.
Stream the world’s best reality, entertainment and true crime shows for free on 7Bravo on 7plus >>
She completed a 30-day stint at a rehab facility in Sydney in 2022.
Gordon posted the video to her Instagram, describing the way she overcame her struggles and how she is doing now.
“I have battled substance abuse for the most part of my life, stepping into recovery at 24 but never being able to stay stopped,” she wrote.
“On April 7th 2022 I got sober and have stayed sober ever since, completely changing my life in ways I didn’t think were possible.”
She shared that the “bright spot” of her life is someone named Katie who “sees and wants things for me I couldn’t even dream of”.
The actress went on to call her mother a “hero” and shared that her father, who died last year was ”proper magic”.
“I always wanted a big family, and I got one with my daughter Aleeia. She is unlike any human I have ever known, so loving, fierce, patient, wise, and curious,” she went on.
Gordon welcomed her daughter in 2014 with her ex-husband, former NRL star Braith Anasta, to whom she was married between 2012 and 2015.
“I love being her teacher and student … Thank you Braith for the wonderful gift of a lifetime,” she wrote in her post.
“She is my reason for every day.”
Gordon went on to say her friends are her family and “helped me to create the life I could only dream of today”.
In 2022 the mother spoke out about her battle with depression after her rehab stay, sharing that she was in a “really dark place”.
“There were no smiles at the start of those 30 days,” she told Stellar.
“To find yourself in a place where you have multiple people making the decision for you that you have to admit yourself into a rehab, that’s not a place where you’re smiling.
“I learned so much through connection but also through the tools that you gain in how to start to deal with that pain, that trauma, how to break it down, coping mechanisms.
“And how, once you exit that rehab facility, to start implementing those tools into your life and restructure and build a bigger, better life.”
For more engaging celebrity content, visit 7Life on Facebook.