I WATCHED awestruck as a swarm of stunning young women sipped £650 Champagne with a Hollywood hellraiser who boasts of bedding a string of A-List actresses and models – the fact Leonardo DiCaprio was there as well was just a bonus.
It was July 2009, and controversial 9 1/2 Weeks actor Mickey Rourke was enjoying a career resurgence.
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He had recently come “out of the wilderness” thanks to his Oscar-nominated role in 2008’s The Wrestler, about a washed up ’80s sportsman desperately trying to cling on to his declining career.
Former boxer Mickey was riding a second wave of fame and making the most of all the female attention he was getting.
We hung out at London’s Whisky Mist nightclub, where several of the extortionately-priced bottles of Dom Perignon were being dished out at Mickey and Leo’s VIP table, along with premium bottles of vodka priced at another £700 each.
A velvet rope sealed off an area for the pair to mingle with their pals, but Mickey, then 56, was more than happy to open up their VIP area to all the gorgeous young models batting their eyelashes at him, despite having a particularly pretty brunette clasped to his arm.
It was around this time that he claimed to have bedded 14 women in a single night.
Mickey was in such high spirits he even playfully staged a set of photographs for the waiting paps, where the former boxer knocked down a roadworks barrier with one of his well-practised punches.
It was a far cry from Leo, who was at great pains to remain incognito – with a baseball cap pulled so tightly over his eyes, he was able to send a decoy lookalike around the club to deter attention.
Mickey scoffed at the time that Leo “didn’t know how to play the game”, but the actor had reason to appreciate the newfound interest.
His career had nosedived during a dark period featuring drink, drugs and a lot of plastic surgery, so he was keen to make the most of his comeback.
He lapped up the love until 5am, when he playfully nicked another pap’s camera and started snapping his own shots.
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It was his second night out in a row, and a few months later he put in a full week of propping up various London nightspots.
During that summer, he became a frequent visitor to the strip club Stringfellows.
Romance rumours
Twice-married Mickey first underwent reconstructive surgery to correct facial injuries sustained in the boxing ring, which started an obsession with surgery – but he has always maintained his eye for the ladies.
An eye that, he is the first to admit, often wanders.
He has been linked to a string of famous models, including Gia Carangi and Elena Kuletskaya, though he has previously denied dating Hole singer Courtney Love, stating rather bluntly: “I’d rather be on a deserted island with a gorilla.”
His candour makes him a dream signing for ITV’s Celebrity Big Brother – no subject will be off limits, and he certainly won’t mind his language – even his 2009 Best Actor BAFTA acceptance speech turned the air blue.
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He will surely be worth every penny of the “astronomically” high six-figure fee he is understood to have signed up for.
It doesn’t surprise me that Mickey chose to appear on the British version of the global reality franchise.
Not only has he always had a fondness for the UK, where he says he feels at his most “comfortable”, but he also has a penchant for British women.
He has previously attempted – unsuccessfully – to chat up singer Pixie Lott and glamour model Abi Titmuss, who has recalled how she politely but firmly told him: “No, I won’t be sleeping with you tonight, Mickey.”
He even said our footballers’ WAGs get an easy ride with their misbehaving men.
“They should try living with Hollywood hell-raisers,” he scoffed. “I once spent a weekend in the UK and had 14 women in one night.
“British footballers have got nothing on us when it comes to women.”
Mickey is currently believed to be single, after stating in 2022 that he had been on his own for seven years.
Model girlfriend
It was shortly after our night out that Mickey met his next girlfriend, the 23-year-old Russian model Anastassija Makarenko – more than three decades his junior – who he chatted up on a photoshoot.
By January 2010, he was proudly describing his girlfriend as a “gift from heaven”, and she called him “the most beautiful man in the world” and “a sweetheart” after he impressed her parents.
Anastassija certainly seemed to tame the star throughout the six years they were together – during which time she was, perhaps unfairly, blamed for another of his drastic makeovers.
He admitted at the time it had been a struggle to curtail his womanising ways for their relationship, saying in 2010: “Sure, I could do something on the side but I’ve got to live with myself. That’s something new to me, being honest in a relationship.”
I once spent a weekend in the UK and had 14 women in one night
Mickey Rouke
After they split in 2015, they were subsequently photographed together but are seemingly not an item, and Mickey has since shrugged that he had only ever really been in love with his ex-wife and Wild Orchid co-star Carré Otis.
During their tumultuous six year marriage in the 1990s he was arrested for spousal abuse, which he has always denied, and the charges were eventually dropped.
But he accepts that Carré was right to scream at him as she left him: “You need help!”
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He did, so he turned to religion, and credits a priest who smoked cigarettes and drank wine with him with saving him – or, as he puts it, the priest “stopped me from blowing my brains out”.
He also sought therapy, and rescued a pack of six dogs whose care prevented him from behaving so wildly.
In a wide-ranging interview in 2022 – which included a discussion about spending time with Russian President Vladimir Putin – he told Piers Morgan’s Uncensored: “If I ever have a relationship again, I hope somebody comes into my life that I can trust.”
Celebrity Big Brother 2025 line-up
Celebrity Big Brother is back for a brand new series, with a whole host of stars set to live it up in the famous compound.
Although he might have to run them past his publicist who, he told a startled BAFTA audience, had “the hardest job in showbiz”, explaining her role included: “Telling me where to go, what to do, when to do it, what to eat, what to dress, what to f***.”
Mickey, now 72, will be brilliant TV – even our night out was blockbuster.
ITV will certainly get their money’s worth.
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