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The Bachelor South Africa reality star Lee Thompson is reportedly back in rehab.
On Friday, Huisgenoot and YOU magazine published an expose with shocking photos reporting that the troubled former Sharks player and fitness model has been living on the streets of Cape Town.
It comes after he had been evicted from a guest house he stayed at in Buitenkant Street, which he trashed and tried to break into earlier this month.
The guest house he rented for R300 a day since March was filled with filth ranging from condoms and liquor bottles, things were broken, and even a fire was made in a room, which the owner described as “a nest” and a “pigsty”.
Thompson couldn’t be reached for comment.
The magazine tracked down Thompson – who rose to fame as the first heartthrob of the South African version of the reality dating show The Bachelor SA on M-Net (DStv 101) in 2019 – and found him at the Culemborg Safe Space 2 night shelter.
Following Friday’s revelations, Huisgenoot now reports that the 34-year-old has been taken to a rehabilitation centre in Gauteng by family and friends – his second stint in rehab at the same centre.
A friend said the fear is that Thompson might not stay long enough: “His mom wasn’t aware that things got so bad again. Lee is good with hiding and pretending that everything’s okay. I hope this lasts and that this is now his rock bottom.”
Many people have come forward to say they’ve paid for his non-existent tell-all memoir, The Truth Behind the Rose, claiming M-Net and Rapid Blue producers allegedly manipulated him during the production of The Bachelor SA. The book’s publication constantly got postponed, although Thompson took money as part of pre-orders from people who said they wanted to read it.
The alleged charity that Thompson claimed he had started – the Live Hope Love South Africa Children’s Fund – and which he claimed he would donate 10% of the book sales can’t be found and doesn’t appear to exist.
A business person who had worked with Lee in the past on social media influencer campaigns told News24: “I knew Lee was on a downward spiral – just didn’t know how bad he would hit rock bottom. He did not even own a phone a few months ago – that’s how bad things got.”
M-Net responded to the “sad reality” of Lee’s current situation, noting that some of its reality TV stars, unfortunately, do fall “into unfavourable circumstances years after the end of their association with our shows”.
