Spencer Matthews reveals he'd down 10 pints and secretly take shots of vodka from bottles at depths of his alcoholism

The Irish Sun

6 days ago

SPENCER Matthews has opened up about his alcoholism - saying the first step was calling a famous pal who ordered him to drop everything and attend his first AA meeting that same night.
The former Made In
Chelsea
star - who quit drinking to save his
marriage
to
Vogue
Williams - said he was shocked by the tough love urgency, but he did go along and initially felt out of place.
4
Spencer Matthews said a famous pal ordered him to attend his first AA meeting
Credit: Rex
4
The former Made In Chelsea star was a wild party boy
Credit: Alamy
4
Spencer said he gave up alcohol to help his marriage with Vogue Williams
Credit: PA
Opening up during a chat with fellow reformed alcoholic Ulrika Jonsson, Spencer said: "I suspect this will come as a shock, because I haven't really spoken about this level of detail.
"I reached out to somebody that I don't really know - but a famous person.
"My agent was managing a very famous person who was sober, and she got me his number and I called him and he said 'you need to get yourself to a men's meeting today'.
"I was just like 'What's the rush? I've taken this step to say I'm going to sort myself out, I don't have time to go today'.
READ MORE ON SPENCER MATTHEWS
"And he said 'You're making excuses, if you've got kids get yourself a babysitter, if you've got a meeting cancel the meeting - get to this meeting, you absolutely must attend this meeting if you're serious about changing your life'."
In a bid to turn his life around, Spencer said: "I went to the meeting and it was the Kilburn mens' meeting. I felt like I didn't really belong there.
"Different people's problems are all relative, but I certainly felt like I was maybe fresher in the scale of what was going wrong. There were people there who were high on
drugs
at the time and very suicidal.
"It was very eye-opening for me - which I suppose was the point.
"I sat down
next
to this guy and he looked at me and he goes 'you look alright' and I thought 'Ok, thanks', and I actually felt out of place because I was deeply ashamed of my drinking and behaviour but I was a little bit like 'I'm sure I can find a maybe more appropriate meeting'.
Most read in News TV
"And the guy at the end was like 'Listen, you probably can find a more appropriate meeting, but you're not a million miles from this, and if you are concerned about what you're seeing here you should be because you're a year away from this.
"'If you carry on you'll lose your wife, you'll lose your kids, you'll lose your job, your family will move away from you potentially'.
Vogue addresses rumour that she has split from hubby
"It was a real wake up call for me."
He said it then dawned on him that the more troubled addicts he saw around him had initially been where he was on the scale.
Matthews, 36, said: "Of course they didn't all start there."
Spencer also told how whereas during his earlier life as a City trader he'd openly knock back ten pints a night, he had already progressed to a point where he'd secretly swig booze from a bottle at home and lie to his loved ones.
Speaking on his Untapped podcast, he added: "When my drinking started to creep into the earlier hours of the day I would just trot down the stairs, neck a double shot of whatever, put it back, come back upstairs like nothing's happened.
"I would use vodka because there's no smell.
"If anybody did say 'Have you had a drink today?' you'd just lie.
"Ordinarily I'd just brush it off and say 'No, why would you think that?'
"For me it was the shame. We also have a cupboard upstairs, I'd open the door and have a quick shot and then shut the door and even if there was somebody else in the house they'd be like 'What were you doing there?' - 'Oh nothing, I'm just looking for something'."
Spencer said the secretive drinking made it difficult for him when he had to dispose of bottles he'd finished - in case someone either saw it in the bin or spotted it had disappeared from the drinks cupboard.
He said: "I used to find it quite difficult when you would work through the whole bottle - over the course of several days - and then all of a sudden the bottle's empty, so it's like 'What do you do with the bottle?'
"Do you throw the bottle out or do you keep the bottle - people might know that the bottle was there."
Spencer has not relapsed since 2018 and has turned his life around and become a super-fit athlete.
Last year the dad-of-three set a
Guinness
World Record while running 30 marathons in 30 days in the desert.
4
Spencer was scared he'd 'lose his wife' if he didn't give up the bottle
Credit: Getty