James Norton has detailed the personal health crisis that unfolded during Jude Law’s speech at a high-profile awards ceremony.
The 39-year-old Happy Valley star was diagnosed with diabetes when he was 22-years-old and has previously discussed how he has learned to manage it over the years.
However, during an incident at the GQ Men of the Year Awards in November last year, “pandemonium” broke loose as the star realised his blood sugar levels had dropped drastically.
The Grantchester actor, who is rumoured to be in the running to be the next James Bond, had taken insulin before the event, expecting a carbohydrate-heavy meal. However, he was served a “fashion dinner” with smoked trout and no bread, before a lengthy wait for the main course.
“I was dripping with sweat,” Norton told the Off Menu podcast. “I am on the high table sitting opposite Nicole Kidman and there are cameras everywhere: if I stand up, it’s really rude.”
Norton became concerned that he would pass out and alerted a waiter nearby: “I said, ‘I’m diabetic. You need to help me. I need some orange juice really quickly, please.’
“That caused pandemonium to break loose. I was looking really ill at this point.”
Staff brought Norton some orange juice and a Pret chocolate bar, as well as a bowl of hot potatoes during Law’s speech at the ceremony as they tried to support him.
“Someone backstage had cooked me a bowl of potatoes. Everyone down the table is going, ‘Why are you…?’ I just looked like a potato-loving glutton. In the middle of the speech as well!”
He explained: “It’s fraught when you’re eating out. You can’t time the meal exactly.”
Norton said he now wears a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) to track his blood sugar levels and explained he would undergo bouts of hypoglycemia or “hypos” overnight.
“[I’d] wake up in a sweaty mess, discombobulated, disoriented, scared. If you’re with a partner, it’s quite scary for them because often hypos are serious things. You lose your mind a bit,” he said of the experience.
He added: “Now, way before that happens, we get a beep, which wakes us up. Since then, my glucose is just more controlled. I sleep so much better.”
Norton is known for his roles in television series including as Tommy Lee Royce in Happy Valley, Sidney Chambers in Grantchester, and as the lead Prince Andrei Bolkonsky in BBC’s adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s novel War & Peace.
