I drank wine because it boosted my dopamine'

Former Hollyoaks actress Davinia Taylor talks to OK! about the lifestyle changes she’s made, her biohacks and why she left London

- LEBBY EYRES

It’s a sunny day in Lancashire when we catch up with Davinia Taylor. The former 90s It Girl-turned-wellness guru is bursting with energy and has already covered 7k with her two “insane”

Podenco dogs, Chico and Chica. If you didn’t grow up in the period when lads’ mags were all the rage and tabloid headlines screamed about the latest indiscretions of the so-called Primrose Hill set, you’d be forgiven for not knowing why Davinia is famous in the first place.

In the late 90s, she bossed the screen as Hollyoaks bad girl Jude Cunningham — who made a brief reappearance in 2016. Off-screen, life was only marginally less dramatic, with nights out with supermodel Kate Moss and the Primrose Hill gang the stuff of legend.

Amid a well-documented battle with alcohol, her marriage to David Beckham’s best friend Dave Gardner broke down in 2009, and he got custody of their son Grey. She quit booze, only to become addicted to carbs and put on weight, reaching 13st.

Now biohacking pioneer Davinia, 46, is “thriving”, she tells us, and truly having the last laugh. The author of bestsellers It’s Not A Diet and Hack Your Hormones, she has 1.2m followers on Instagram and a happy home life with her other half Matthew Leyden and her oldest sons Grey, 17, and Luxx, 13, as well as her sons with Matthew, Asa, 10, and Jude, eight. Plus, her wellness brand WillPowders is going from strength to strength, as she follows in the footsteps of her entrepreneurial parents, who made their money starting a loo roll business.

But this isn’t a typical journey from hedonism to health. Instead, as Davinia tells OK!, she is the same person she’s always been, but her journey has been about understanding her addiction to dopamine — our pleasure hormone. But now, instead of getting instant gratification from a glass of white wine, she gets it from eating good fats and mood-busting supplements.