British legend Stephen Fry was rushed to hospital after a night out with his pal Ben Elton, who has now admitted the actor was close to suffering permanent brain damage
07:58, 26 Oct 2025
Stephen Fry suffered a huge turn for the worse after a huge cocaine and booze binge, according to his friend (Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/Studio Lambert/Euan Cherry)
Celebrity Traitors favourite Stephen Fry was “minutes from death” following a terrifying booze and cocaine session, according to a close mate. Comedy legend and television writer Ben Elton has disclosed how he raced Fry to A&E as his life hung in the balance.
Medical staff informed him that Stephen, renowned for his brilliant mind, had been “minutes away from suffering permanent brain damage – and not many more minutes away from death”. The shocking disclosure emerges shortly after Stephen became one the most recent celebrities to exit Celebrity Traitors following his elimination.
Mates Stephen and Ben had enjoyed an evening meal in London before heading to an afterparty at the Islington residence of the late writer Douglas Adams. Stephen – referred to as ‘Bing’ – was house-sitting for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy author at the time.
Stephen Fry and Ben Elton would often hit the town together as they revelled in lavish parties in the 90s(Image: Getty Images)
Ben, 66, told the Mirror : “It was that time of the night when you know that it’s time to pull the pin but you don’t and instead you open another couple of bottles. We were drinking beer, which Stephen very rarely did, and for some reason he had some weird organic Belgian stuff which he thought we should try.
“We were smoking fags pretty copiously as we did in those days and, on top of that, Stephen was whacking cocaine up his nose. I can say this because he’s been entirely forthright about it in his own memoir and, having admitted to doing it at Buck House, doing it with me is hardly a scandal. I have never been interested in hard drugs myself”.
In his latest memoir What Have I Done?, Ben revealed he was preparing to head home and waiting for his cab when he noticed something was seriously amiss with his pal. He went on: “Had I decided to have another beer, Stephen almost certainly would have been dead in an hour because shortly after he’d called for the cab, he started to wheeze.
“As the wheezing turned to throaty gasping, I realised that something was wrong. ‘Bing? Is this serious?’ ‘Yes.'”.
The former QI host was hoisted into a wheelchair and rushed to hospital(Image: Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/Getty I)
“His head was rolling a bit and his breathing suddenly sounded alarmingly hollow. It happened in a minute. ‘Do you want me to call an ambulance?’ ‘Yes..’ He was beginning to slump in his chair.”
Ben recalled: “I got Stephen out of the cab and virtually dragged him up the steps to the front entrance. I don’t know where either of us found the strength because he was pretty much a dead weight (literally).
“His breath sounded like a death rattle and I couldn’t imagine he was getting any oxygen into his lungs at all. At the top of the stairs, I found a wheelchair.
“I got Stephen into the chair and through the doors. Stephen was slumped like a sack, almost falling out of the chair. His long legs were splayed out and I couldn’t get his feet onto the foot plates.
“He didn’t seem to notice but I felt absolutely sick about it as I dragged the chair and Stephen into what was clearly a reception.” Ben revealed the space was empty at that moment, so he shouted “I have an emergency” which brought a nurse rushing to assist.
Ben ended up revealing everything to emergency services at the hospital in order to save Stephen’s life(Image: NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Ben also confessed he was desperate to remain by Stephen’s bedside to explain that he’d disclosed his cocaine use to medical staff and “was still really worried”. He explained: “I imagined that the big ‘coke’ word was all over Stephen’s notes and I felt he needed to know.
“Stephen taking coke would have been very big and entirely surprising and probably career-destroying news to the public in ’92. Plus, it could have led to his arrest and even imprisonment.
“Stephen was pretty woozy and nodding off, but he was conscious enough to hear me. ‘Bing, mate,’ I whispered. ‘I’m sorry but I told them you’d been doing coke. I felt I had to because they were medicating you.'”.
“He squeezed my hand and whispered that it was fine. ‘Don’t worry,’ he added between mercifully longer breaths. ‘I’ll be writing an entire book about it in 20 years.'”.
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