Loose Women star Nadia Sawalha has claimed that if she hadn't become pregnant in 2002, herself and her husband Mark Adderley would have died of alcohol abuse.
The 54-year-old star says she was a party animal and her husband was an alcoholic before she discovered that she was expecting her daughter Maddie, who is now 16.
Nadia claims she was “emotionally and physically unwell” and “hadn’t been dealing with grief” when she met TV producer Mark four years after the suicide of her first husband, Justin Mildwater.
“There was a lot of drink and a lot of late nights,” she said. Mark is now teetotal, and the couple are writing a play together. Nadia spoke to Mark in her podcast, How to Stay Married (So Far), about the experience.
She said: “Getting together with you and getting pregnant made me go: ‘Jesus Christ, all that’s gone before has to go’.
"I was such a different person since being pregnant with Maddie. And I think that was the beginning of us saving our lives," she continued.
"We probably would have died. We would have gone crazy on the alcohol," she added. The pair also have another daughter, 11-year-old Kiki-Bee.
Nadia denies that she was an alcoholic, but admitted that her drinking habits were unhealthy;
“I had to stop drinking first. I am a heavy drinker but I am not an alcoholic. Mark would drink so much it was worrying.”
Mark said: “Our drinking would have rumbled on to all sorts of destruction in the relationship and I would have died. Because you had to stop, the fog was removed and you could just see me for what I was.”
Nadia said Mark stopping drinking entirely helped to “curtail” her own intake of drink. “We never open a bottle of wine unless we have people around.”
Feature image: Instagram/@nadiasawalhaandfamily
