Jacob Young has spoken publicly for the first time about a seven-year opioid addiction that began with a routine dental prescription and spiralled in secret, hidden even from his own wife.

The General Hospital actor, 46, made the revelation on the Imperfectly Perfect Podcast, tracing the roots of his substance use back to a difficult childhood and describing how addiction eventually took hold of a significant portion of his adult life. 

“I went through seven years of my life, wasted on opioids, still trying to figure out what was wrong with me, but I didn’t know,” he said. 

“It was just needing to numb… It was the only thing that made me feel normal.”

The opioids came into his life through an unexpected route. 

After he and his wife Christen Steward had bought a house and settled in together, Young underwent dental surgery and was prescribed Vicodin.

Apart from having his wisdom teeth out as a teenager, he had never taken opioids before. What followed was years of dependency that he kept entirely to himself.

Young’s history with substances had begun much earlier, though. 

He started smoking marijuana around the age of 14, and it wasn’t until his mid-20s, when fame from roles on All My Children, General Hospital and The Bold and the Beautiful brought him into the orbit of New York City’s nightlife, that drinking and cocaine use entered the picture. 

By the time he married, he had largely left those behind. The opioids were a different story.

He eventually sat his wife down and told her the truth, a conversation he credits as the turning point. From there, he sought counselling and medical support to work through his dependency.

Looking back, Young connects his substance use to a childhood defined by instability. 

His parents divorced and he was shuffled between them in a way that left him unsettled. The family relied on welfare and food stamps, and Young grew up alongside three older siblings in what he described as a humble upbringing. 

In his adolescence, he went to live with his father, which felt stable, until his stepmother, who had become like a second mother to him, died by suicide. 

His relationship with his father broke down in the aftermath, and a difficult relationship with his mother at the time left him without a reliable parental figure during some of his most formative years.

“I was going through stuff that I didn’t realise that I was ever going to go through, emotionally,” he said, a quiet acknowledgement of just how much had been buried, long before the prescriptions began.

Meghan Markle gave her Instagram followers a little bit of everything this Friday. 

She posted from her lifestyle brand to heartfelt friendship shoutouts and even a side of film celebration.

First story shows the Duchess inviting fans to explore As Ever’s latest collaboration. 

The newly launched Garden Tea Bloom Box, created alongside High Camp Supply, is a sensory treat blending High Camp gardenias with peonies, camellia greens, jasmine, and mint, paired with As Ever’s herbal peppermint tea and sage honey with honeycomb.

She also shared a warm nod to her close friend Kelly McKee Zajfen, posting a simple yet heartfelt message: “proud of you @heartmom,” following their recent outing together.

The pair attended the 34th Annual Champions for Children gala hosted by the Alliance for Children’s Rights at the Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel, celebrating Kelly and her work with the Alliance of Moms.

Dressed in a sleek Ralph Lauren gown, the Duchess looked radiant as she stepped out in support of her close friend, who is currently expecting a baby boy.

And in a final story, Meghan highlighted a big win for the film Cookie Queens, which picked up the Festival Favorite Audience Award at SXSW. 

Reposting the team’s excitement, the update read: “Wow- such an honour. Huge thanks from our whole film team to the fabulous audiences, programmers, and volunteers! 

We had a blast at SXSW and can’t wait to bring the film to more festivals and theaters.”

As Brooklyn Beckham’s relationship with his own family remains publicly fractured, his wife Nicola Peltz Beckham has revealed that her side couldn’t be more welcoming, treating him like one of their own from the start.

“[They welcomed him] like another son,” Nicola, 31, told Elle Spain in a profile published on Friday, 20 March. 

“He gets along really well with my brothers. They play soccer together a lot.” 

Nicola is one of eight children born to billionaire Nelson Peltz and model Claudia Heffner Peltz, giving Brooklyn a ready-made extended family to slot into.

The couple met in 2019 at a Halloween party, Nicola arrived dressed as a cat, and married in 2022. 

She recalled the early days of their courtship with the kind of detail that suggests she’s replayed it many times. 

“When I walked in, he was staring at me,” she said. Brooklyn was only in Los Angeles for ten days at the time, and Nicola, self-described as something of a homebody who goes to bed early, threw her usual habits out of the window to spend as much time with him as possible. 

“We were together until 10 in the morning, driving around the city, exploring,” she said. “We made excuses not to be apart.”

It was a call to her mother the following morning that confirmed what she already suspected. 

“She understood right away: ‘If you’ve stayed up this late, he’s The One,’ she said. She was right.”

The warmth of that reception from Nicola’s family stands in stark contrast to the situation with Brooklyn’s parents, David and Victoria Beckham. 

In January, Brooklyn issued a lengthy public statement claiming his parents had been attempting to undermine his relationship since before the wedding, and alleging that they had pressured him to sign away the rights to his name in a deal he felt would affect him, Nicola and any future children. 

“My holdout affected the payday, and they have never treated me the same since,” he said.

Brooklyn also spoke about the personal toll of the estrangement, and the unexpected relief that has followed. 

“I have been controlled by my parents for most of my life. I grew up with overwhelming anxiety,” he wrote. 

“For the first time in my life, since stepping away from my family, that anxiety has disappeared.” 

He was unambiguous about his intentions going forward, saying he and Nicola simply wanted “peace, privacy and happiness.”

David and Victoria have not publicly responded to the allegations, though both posted birthday tributes for Brooklyn earlier in March when he turned 27. 

A source close to the situation told Us Weekly that Brooklyn saw through it. 

“He thinks it’s just another way for them to save face with the public and that it did not feel meaningful,” the insider said. “He is not letting any of the nonsense bother him.”