‘Danny knows what will happen if he puts a foot wrong again…’: After years of boozing, bailiffs at the door and cheating scandals, here’s what REALLY made DANNY DYER turn it around to become a Rivals heartthrob, reveals KATIE HIND

Any visitor to Danny Dyer’s mansion in Essex will tell you who wore the trousers. And no, he’s not the star of Rivals. Guests are stunned to see how dominated the self-styled ‘cockney geezer’ is by his long-suffering wife, Jo Mas.

“He makes her do the dishes,” says a friend. ‘She makes him take Hoover out and there’s no way he gets the dog’s droppings, that’s his job. He does as he’s told… Jo cracks the whip.’

In fact, it’s been quite a learning curve for Danny, the standout star of the Disney+ television adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s best-selling ‘Rutshire Chronicles’ novels, as he’s been giving Jo a hard time for almost two decades.

For a time he faced financial ruin (bailiffs came knocking) and was dogged by accusations of cheating and excessive drinking at London’s trendiest nightclubs.

Friends say his childhood sweetheart Jo, whom he started dating when they were both 13, “constantly threw him out” for his wasteful behavior, despairing of the “tough guy” image he lived up to by throwing wild parties that would often leave him “out of it” for days.

He was said to have been devastated when it was revealed he had a six-week fling with late Girls Aloud singer Sarah Harding in 2012, and his friends were surprised Jo took him back.

But thank God he succeeded. For today, 48-year-old Danny is a new man, coming off a complete transformation both personally and professionally, which has turned him into the poster boy for middle-class women in Britain.

Even gambling firm Paddy Power’s widely published ad, in which he appears topless while sitting outside a bar with a beer in his hand, is unlikely to delay his new fan base.

The East London-born star plays Freddie Jones in the second season of popular comedy Rivals, opposite Katherine Parkinson.

Once the star of gritty movies that barely made it into theatres, Danny is today admired for his portrayal of lovable millionaire Freddie Jones in Rivals; A self-made working-class hero with a monstrous wife and in love with married romantic novelist Lizzie Vereker (Katherine Parkinson).

Viewers are impressed by his down-to-earth and sensitive attitude; This contrasts sharply with the lovely Lizzie’s smug and arrogant TV presenter husband, James, played by Oliver Chris, who takes his wife for granted and treats her with terrible disdain.

It’s also a far cry from Danny’s role in EastEnders, where he played tough guy Mick Carter, landlord of the Albert Square Queen Vic, a role he held for almost nine years and won three National Television Awards.

‘Danny was seen as a total liability this time 15 years ago,’ says a television source. ‘He was a bit of a mess, a good actor, but he wasn’t at the top of almost everyone’s hire list. EastEnders took a bit of a gamble and it paid off; The audience loved him and so did his colleagues, but he still knew how to party back then.’

Danny is grateful to the producers of Rivals for casting him as a romantic lead, alongside actors Alex Hassell as Rupert Campbell Black and Aidan Turner as Declan O’Hara.

But his friends insist he has Jo to thank for his evolution from tough guy to middle-age sex symbol; It’s something he ‘quite enjoys’.

The couple finally married in September 2016 in a lavish ceremony at the luxury Chewton Glen Hotel in New Milton in the New Forest in Hampshire.

Jo stood by him faithfully throughout his troubles and was also by his side in 2017 when he returned from rehab in Cape Town for addiction issues.

‘Jo loves him but is hard on him,’ says a friend of the couple.

‘He was throwing her out regularly and they had broken up before and Danny always knew if he made one wrong step it would happen again.

‘But he has been a huge supporter and a very important part of the new phase of his life. He’s wet, she’s hard, and that’s the key. It’s very strict these days.

Danny and Jo, 2023. The couple have been together for 35 years and share children Dani, Sunnie and Arty.

‘Jo made many sacrifices for Danny; It gave him the life he could only dream of 15 years ago.’

My friends also told me that Jo was fed up with her ‘bad’ friends and gave her an ultimatum that if she didn’t get rid of them she would leave him. One said: ‘That’s exactly what he meant. If he’d kept hanging out with them he’d have gotten rid of her.’

The actor is said to be remorseful for his past actions.

He is acutely aware that he is far from the ideal husband or father to his daughters, Love Island star Dani, 29, and younger sister Sunnie, 19.

He and Jo also have a nine-year-old son called Arty, and Danny has gone to great lengths to be a good father to him to make up for the lost years.

‘Danny feels like he’s really hurting his family at times,’ says a friend of the star. ‘He knows he let them down and for him this new path is about making it up to them. He wants to make them proud.

‘Jo, Dani and Sunnie have all suffered but it’s especially heartbreaking for Dani. His father wasn’t around him much when he was little.

‘Danny knows you remember some of this, but he couldn’t have been a more supportive father today.

‘If he gets invited for a night out one of these days, he wants to take Dani and Sunnie with him. He’s come full circle, these days he’s the ideal husband and father.

‘And that’s really important to him. He is a changed man. Both the cheating and drinking stopped.

‘Thanks to Jo and the girls, he learned his lessons, looked at his past behavior and vowed to be a better person.’ Danny is a doting grandfather to Dani’s three children; She has a son, Santiago, from her relationship with former trader Sammy Kimmence (convicted of fraud and imprisoned), and three identical twin daughters, Summer and Star, with West Ham footballer Jarrod Bowen, with whom Danny is also in love.

But fans of Jilly Cooper may have been a bit startled when she was seen live on television last month – with one of her grandchildren on her lap and Jo at her side – singing an X-rated football chant from the stands at West Ham United’s London Stadium during their FA Cup clash against Leeds United.

‘Danny was seen as a total liability this time 15 years ago,’ says a television source. ‘It was a bit messy’

The chant sung by West Ham fans, set to the gala’s song Freed From Desire, celebrates winger Jarrod while making a cheeky reference to his partner Dani. However, they said they ‘thought it funny’ that Dani’s father had attended, perhaps thinking Danny could do no wrong now.

‘He would never do anything to hurt Dani, he just loves Jarrod so much and when he goes to West Ham he acts like a West Ham fan,’ says a family friend.

Danny turns 50 next year and is undoubtedly in the prime of his career so far. He currently hosts a quiz show called Nobody’s Fool on ITV with his Rivals co-star Emily Atack, and bosses at the channel are ‘flipping’ over having managed to get the pair onto the show.

Also coming is the second series of the Sky reality show, The Dyers’ Caravan Park, in which he and his daughter Dani try to run the Priory Hill caravan park on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent.

Earlier this year he starred in One Last Deal, a struggling football manager thriller, and is currently filming Channel 4 drama The Siege, about the six-day standoff at the Iranian embassy in 1980.

Last week he also found himself fronting Rolling Stone UK; another sign that it’s being viewed as poster material, as its previous cover star is none other than Hollywood royalty and Marty Supreme star Timothee Chalamet.

After all, he’s a new man, and there’s no doubt his loving wife Jo is behind his newfound success.

‘Danny has been with Jo for 35 years and has been in the spotlight for 30 of those,’ says a friend.

‘If it wasn’t for him, it’s fair to say he probably wouldn’t still be working as an actor and certainly wouldn’t be the pin-up he is today.’

As for Jo, what does she think of her husband’s new followers?

‘He absolutely loves her,’ says his friend.