Denise Welch has opened up about her experience with battling addiction and how her life has changed since going sober 11 years ago.
The Loose Women star is celebrating her 65th birthday today, May 22, and to mark the occasion, she has spoken out why this decade in her life has been ‘the happiest’ for her.
Sharing an honest insight into her past and how far she’s come, Denise spoke with OK! about her battle with depression and how her addiction ‘stopped the pain at the time’, before she got sober.
Welch explained, “This decade has been one of the happiest in my life for two reasons. One is that I met my husband and I have an incredibly happy marriage that I love and I nurture. And two because I got sober”.
“My life was a mess for many parts of a decade and more before. Not all the time, but I was dealing with an addiction which impacted my family and myself”.
“Addiction is a horrible illness. There are never excuses for behaviour, but there are always reasons - that’s how I look at my life”.
Denise then admitted, “I made some terrible judgements, I made some terrible mistakes, I hurt my family, but there were reasons and that was because I was medicating a terrible illness”.
“And anybody who has suffered from depression will know that you’ll do anything to stop the pain. That is why people with depression take their own lives. They very rarely want to die - they want to stop the pain. You are looking for a quick fix all the time, whether that’s drink or drugs to stop the pain - and that’s what I was doing”.
“Once you get into that vicious cycle, you can’t get off it, because you’re terrified of the comedowns all the time”.
The former Waterloo Road actress revealed that apart from raising her family, getting sober is what she’s most proud of in life.
“Bar having my children, and raising two amazing kids and now having an amazing step-son who’s given us a grandchild, apart from the pride in that, getting sober is the thing I am most proud of. Not just for me and Lincoln, but for the family that loves you, because you’re getting sober for everybody. Everybody’s life is good because we’ve given up drinking”.
Denise is mum to 34-year-old Matty, known for being in the band The 1975, and 22-year-old Emmerdale actor Louis. She shares her sons with ex-husband Tim Healy.
After splitting from Tim, the TV presenter married her husband, Lincoln, and became step-mum to his son Lewis. The couple will be celebrating 10 years of marriage this June after tying the knot in Portugal in 2013.
