Susannah Constantine has admitted she would down up to a bottle-and-a-half of wine every evening as a ‘functioning alcoholic’ – and would wake up in the morning ‘praying the four horsemen would come and take me away’.
The London-born TV star, who lives in West Sussex, told how she was ‘very controlled’ about her drinking and would crack open the vino at six o’clock on the dot each night.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, Susannah, 58, admitted the ‘shame and guilt’ when she woke up in the morning was ‘overwhelming’, and claimed it was a very lonely place to be in.
‘Probably every single day I would drink, it got to the stage where I was drinking a bottle to a bottle and a half, and I think there’ll be a lot of listeners who will think, “Well that’s what I do” and they might not be an alcoholic but it’s how the alcohol affects you,’ she told host Emma Barnett this week.
Susannah Constantine has admitted she would down up to a bottle-and-a-half of wine every evening as a ‘functioning alcoholic’ – and would wake up in the morning ‘praying the four horsemen would come and take me away’
‘I would wake up in the morning, trying to recall how I’d been and what I’d done, and then the feeling of shame and guilt was overwhelming. And I think… that was when I understood I had a serious problem with alcohol.’
Asked if those mornings were ‘pretty rough’, the mother-of-three replied: ‘They were, I’d wake up and I’d just pray that the four horseman would come along and take me away.
‘It was very lonely, and I think as a high-functioning alcoholic and someone who is holding down a family and a job, it’s a very lonely place to be because you are putting forward the charade that you’re OK and you’re managing, but inside you’re dying and you can’t share that with anyone.’
Susannah, whose mother was also an alcoholic, first revealed she has a drinking problem in November last year, and told how she has been in recovery for seven years.
Susannah, pictured in 2005 with husband Sten Bertelsen, first revealed she has a drinking problem in November last year, and told how she has been in recovery for seven years
She admitted on My Mate Bought A Toaster, a podcast hosted by comedian Tom Price, that her husband Sten Bertelsen was forced to bear the brunt of her ‘passive aggressive’ behaviour.
On Woman’s House, she recalled an ‘eternally shameful’ incident at a party when someone approached Sten and told him to take her home because she could barely stand, to her ‘eternal shame’.
‘And then another time, we were on holiday, and I blacked out and fell and broke two transverse processes in my back,’ she went on.
‘That’s when I asked for help, and as a high functioning female alcoholic it’s very difficult to ask for help. But I did, and that saved me.’
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour , Susannah, pictured in 2013, admitted the ‘shame and guilt’ when she woke up in the morning after drinking was ‘overwhelming’, and claimed it was a very lonely place to be in
Susannah told Emma she didn’t seek to ‘numb’ her feelings with drink, but did so because she ‘really enjoyed it’.
She revealed that sometimes she drank because she was ‘bored’, adding: ‘If I was doing something and I’ll think “Oh well I’ll just have a few drinks”, and everything became more fun and more exciting until it didn’t.’
Last week Susannah appeared on Jeremy Vine on 5 and said she thinks she’s about to lose her driving licence after ‘totting up’ too many points.
‘I might have to take up a bicycle,’ she exclaimed. ‘I have too many speeding fines and what’s known as a totter – I keep getting points on my licence.
‘I got two in one journey when I was going down to Cornwall on the A3O3 and I was only 2mph over on one stretch and 4mph over on another.’
Susannah has previously expressed her disdain for cyclists and even joked that she would run over her own husband if she saw him out on his bike.
Susannah (pictured in September 2019) has previously expressed her disdain for cyclists and even joked that she would run over her own husband if she saw him out on his bike