Louis Theroux smoked “nightly spliff” through late teens and twenties to help him sleep

Louis Theroux has admitted to smoking “a nightly spliff” for years, prompting shock in a new podcast interview.

• READ MORE: ‘Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere’ review: one of the greatest documentaries of his career

The documentarian, known for his earnest and strait-laced manner on camera, appeared on the latest episode of Katherine Ryan’s podcast What’s My Age Again?, and discussed his vices during his younger years.

‘I was like one or two cigarettes at parties and a nightly spliff through my late teens and 20s,’ he said (via Metro), before acknowledging the response in the podcast studio. ‘There was a reaction in the room to that. Did that surprise the kids?’

Explaining the usage, he said: “I would just have like one spliff a night just to help me sleep.” Ryan repeated back to him: ‘Just one, every night,’ to which he clarified: “Well, sometimes a bit more.” He also discussed drinking alcohol, confessing that “I even enjoy the hangovers” due to the experience of progressively feeling better during the day.

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Theroux made his name primarily on the BBC with a number of documentary series. Initially finding fame with Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends, in which he explored American subcultures, he would go on to make documentaries where he profiled notorious celebrities such as Jimmy Savile, before making programmes on various subjects such as Scientology, Neo-Nazis in America, and ultra-Zionists in Israel.

In March this year, he would present his first documentary for Netflix, Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere, where he profiled the rise of hyper-masculine content creators. NME’s five-star review of the film concluded: “[Theroux has] certainly shown the lads up as scared, insecure little boys offering easy answers in a complex world that has left them feeling adrift. If the manosphere really does have to be a battleground, Louis Theroux just owned its loudest voices.”