Gregg Wallace opens up about alcohol problem: ‘I’d start at 10 in the morning’

Gregg Wallace has opened up about his secret alcohol problem, which saw him start drinking from 10am, seven days a week.

The MasterChef star revealed that “loneliness” was a contributing factor, adding that his dependency came to a head in 2005 amid divorcing his second wife, Denise.

In an interview with MailOnline, the 56-year-old said his drinking got so bad that the owner of his local pub at the time would let him in while the landlord was “still wearing his dressing gown".

“I just wanted to be out and I just wanted to drink. It was seven days a week,” Wallace said.

“It got so bad at one point the owner of The White Bear in Clerkenwell used to let me in when he was still in his dressing gown.

“I’d be in there with the window cleaner, who was also a drunk, and a drunken lawyer and we’d start drinking at 10am – then the landlord would open up and we’d just catch up and tell him what we had.”

Wallace went on to say that he wasn’t in a “good mental state” at the time.

“It means you don’t want to go home. I’d start at 10 in the morning then have a big lunch with a few more drinks, have a couple in the afternoon followed by a big dinner,” he explained.

“At the weekends, I used to call my sofa the Betty Ford Clinic. It was drink dependency; I just didn’t realise. It all seemed like fun.

“It might have also been loneliness and a desire to just party and go out all the time. The idea of being at home wasn’t great.”

The television host credits his third wife, Anne-Marie Sterpini, for helping to change his approach to drinking.

“Anna made an enormous difference. She said to me ‘I’m just asking, not nagging you, but do you know when you’re going to stop when drinking?’ I was like, ‘No, am I supposed to?’,” Wallace said.

“She taught me the second drink is normally when you feel the most euphoria and if you carry on drinking from there, you don’t prolong the feeling, you go somewhere else. That’s what I learned.”

Since overcoming his dependency, Wallace has lost four stone and regularly exercises after being warned by doctors that he was a candidate for a heart attack. In a recent interview with Closer Magazine, he added that his 16 month old son, Sid, had inspired him to get fit.

“Having my baby boy made me want to be fit and strong. I can now go for long walks, which I wouldn’t have been able to do before,” he said.

Wallace also commented on the two-decade age difference between him and Sterpini, saying: “Anne being younger than me was even more of an inspiration to be fit – you can have an old husband but she didn’t have to have a fat, old husband.”

Alcoholics Anonymous helpline is open 24/7 on 0800 9177 650. If you would prefer, you can also email them at help@aamail.org or live chat via their website at www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk. 

Drinkline, a free, confidential helpline for people who are concerned about their drinking, or someone else's. Call 0300 123 1110 (weekdays 9am–8pm, weekends 11am–4pm).