The Loose Women star said that at her worst, she’d suffer “blackouts” and her drinking would cause “arguments and fights” in her relationship
Denise Welsh has celebrated a huge milestone, today marking her 14th year without an alcoholic drink. The Loose Women star said that at her worst, she’d suffer “blackouts” and her drinking would cause “arguments and fights” in her relationship.
Sharing a throwback picture alongside a more recent snap on Instagram, Denise praised her husband Lincoln Townley, who is also sober, for changing her life.
She wrote: “Today I celebrate 14 yrs since I had my last alcoholic drink. Not even a sherry trifle…..although I did have a rum and raisin ice cream in Italy last year but luckily remained sober!!!
“I cannot imagine what my life would be like had I not met @lincolntownley who was 14 yrs sober in February.
“The only thing that we can ever thank alcohol for is that we wouldn’t have met in a nightclub at 6am had we not been drinkers. We knew that we potentially had a great relationship but the problems, the blackouts, the terrible decisions, the arguments and fights only happened when drink and drugs were involved.
“I was desperately, pathetically trying to medicate a severe mental illness to no avail and Lincoln was running a nightclub that required him to work into the early hours. Although we didn’t attend AA, (I don’t believe a higher power got me sober, it was will power got me sober) I remember talking to someone who told me that at their meeting they heard that you have a problem with alcohol when your drinking is making you and the people who love you desperately unhappy. That was absolutely true for both of us.
“We were lucky that we could be each others anchor and go on this difficult journey together. AA is a wonderful organisation and a lifeline for millions it just wasn’t for us. We have a wonderful marriage and because of that our children can live their lives free of the worry and embarrassment that our continued lifestyle would have brought.
“We miss absolutely nothing about our old drinking days but we are now at a place where we can reminisce and find humour in some of our stories rather than just shame. Believe me, guilt is something we all live with, shame is something else and takes a lot of work and family support and forgiveness to come to terms with.”
Denise said she’s feeling better than ever. She said: “At nearly 68, I’m having somewhat of a renaissance and loving every minute. I have several acting projects coming out this year which I’m very proud of.
“Lincolns art is showing at the Venice Bienalle @labiennale at the Palazzo Bembo. Our kids are flying in their careers, have gorgeous partners who we love and we are obsessed with our grandson and another one arriving in June!! Life is good.”
After ditching alcohol, Denise later realised she may be swapping alcohol for food addiction due to an “addictive personality”. Denise revealed to the Mirror: “I very quickly realised that I was in danger of swapping alcohol addiction for food addiction.”
The Waterloo Road star went on to say “all of the bad things” in her life had kept her slim without her trying – including alcohol and depression. “That stops me from eating when I’m having an episode, suddenly, the alcohol and the bad things were taken out of my life, I realised I was starting to replace alcohol with food,” she said.
She found herself “bingeing” and eating “way past” her full point, but it was never enough. She revealed she had started secretly eating, heading to the kitchen for food, and hiding chocolate. But she later realised that she didn’t need to hide it from her family, as her husband, Lincoln and youngest, Hotel Portofino star son, Louis, didn’t care.
“Nobody cared – so why am I doing everything so secretly? Guiltily, like I used to drink,” she said. After Lincoln proposed to Denise, she realised she had put on two stones in “not a very long time”. She explained that while she realised some people often look to lose a significant amount of weight, the two stone to her was a great deal.
Explaining, she said: “It wasn’t just how aesthetically it made me look, because I carry a lot of my weight on my face, so it becomes very noticeable. I’m on television several times a week – and that’s not a very flattering medium, so I was aware of it there but it was also the fact I’ve never been super fit but I was aware it was impairing my breathing.”
But the realisation hit Denise while she was appearing in a theatre production in Kingston with Keith Allen. Recalling the moment, she said: “I tripped and fell on Kingston Bridge. I went to see this knee doctor and he said, ‘You’ve got osteoarthritis and you need to lose weight’.
“I thought ‘my God, I didn’t think I had that much of a problem’, the breathing and stuff was due to a sleep apnoea problem that wasn’t caused by, but isn’t helped by, weight gain.”
After losing the two stone, Denise used her CBT skills to pack smoking in, something she took up when she was 16.
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