Take a look at where pop star Darius is now, from a near-fatal coma to parents’ miracle cancer recovery

Darius was one of the most famous reality stars of the noughties, shooting to fame on Popstars with his rendition of Baby One More Time.

He then competed on Pop Idol, placing third, and enjoyed a successful music career following the show, scoring five top 10 singles and a number one with Colourblind, with the star even touring with Shakira.

In 2010, he won Popstar to Operastar, performed in many West End shows, and now the 40 year old boasts a successful music production career.

However, while his career has stayed on track since his fame heyday, his personal life has proved turbulent.

The Glaswegian moved to the US when he was 22 where he married actress Natasha Henstridge and became a dad to two sons.

However, the turbulent marriage wasn’t to last, and the pair divorced in 2013.

“That relationship was certainly not without its ups and downs. Over the course of 12 years we broke up many times and had a period of six months apart,” he previously told the Scottish Herald.

“It was often a long-distance relationship for half of it. That in itself was an amazing experience, but a painful one. When you love someone you want to be with them.”

Darius described their split as a feeling of grief.

“I felt a great sense of loss with the divorce, and I went through a grieving period. You see, you don’t break up with one person, you break up with three. And in some ways, it’s like a death,” he added.

After his marriage ended, both his doctor parents were diagnosed with cancer which they both miraculously survived.

His dad, gastroenterologist Dr Booth Danesh who was 73 at the time, was diagnosed with stage four lymphoma and given three months to live after it was discovered to have spread to his bone marrow.

While his mother Avril Danesh, who was working as a cancer doctor, was diagnosed with breast cancer age 63.

Both managed to defy doctors after their tumours shrunk with chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Darius was at home in LA when he received the call that both his parents had cancer.

He said: “As doctors, both my mum and Dad have diagnosed thousands of their patients with cancer but to have to break the news to your own family that you have cancer is very different.

“Ironically, watching my Dad go through his cancer journey inspired my mum so much that she became a specialist oncologist at the Beatson Cancer Unit.

“I was in America at the time, and she called me, with my dad beside her, and told me she had breast cancer. I just couldn’t believe it.

“She was very self-aware, had found the lump herself and was then diagnosed at the hospital where she works.”

Darius suffered his own health scare in 2017 when he contracted an inflammatory virus from drinking dirty water while filming a charity television advert.

The singer was filming next to the River Thames when he took a slug of the infected water which left his immune system so low that he caught bacterial meningitis and slipped into a coma.

“I drank the water for the video and raised funds but, when I went to Glasgow to see my mum for her birthday, I collapsed,” he told the same publication of his horror hospitalisation, which happened because the filter he used was a dummy version.

“It turned out I had cerebral oedema where your brain swells bigger than your skull. Dad saved my life. He got me to the hospital. They diagnosed it quickly.”

Darius added: “As I came out of the coma, I remember my mum sitting beside the bed.

“It felt upside down and wrong because my mum was going through cancer treatment.

“Yet she was next to me with tears in her eyes telling my brother that they almost lost me.”

The star said: “My illness knocked me off my feet, and I was bed-bound for three months and picked up a new respect for what my parents went through.”