HE is the ripped US Marines veteran filling the boots of sacked Ant Middleton on TV’s SAS: Who Dares Wins.
But in an exclusive chat with the Sun on Sunday, new chief instructor Rudy Reyes today reveals how life in the military was nothing compared to the drink and drugs hell his war traumas plunged him into.
Rudy, 50, quit the Marines in 2005 after seven years’ service including tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, then turned to TV and film acting work in the US before going on ever-wilder benders to blot out his demons.
He fell in with biker gangs and brawled in bars, and in 2016 contemplated ending it all after losing custody of his nine-year-old son Dylan.
He said: “I had PTSD and had been in a mental institution for veterans. My violence was used against me in court. I was not well.
“I have never felt so low. I thought, ‘I am worthless.’ I don’t know if it was day or night when I came close to killing myself because no sunlight could get into my loft apartment.
“I was only saved because I heard this voice, a god’s voice. It was a feeling that, ‘There is more for you to do and it’s going to be OK’.”
Combat hero Rudy signed up to Channel 4’s SAS show after Brit ex-Marine Ant, 41, was given his marching orders last year for allegedly making inappropriate remarks about women.
Rudy is relishing a new start but admits he got into so many fights between 2011 and 2015 that he was lucky to dodge jail.
He said: “Marines do two things — kill people and break s**t. I got into fights all the time, I was very dangerous.
Abandoned as child
“I didn’t drink until I was 36, and I was 38 when I first tried drugs. It seemed to help with my depression and sense of isolation.