Spencer Matthews has revealed he used to "almost aggressively" snap at Vogue Williams if she asked him if he had a drink – as the reality TV star admits he’s been boozing since he was a teenager.
Matthews – who has been married to the Howth star since 2018 – appears in the second episode of RTE’s Hooked, which airs tonight on RTE One.
The dad-of-three talks about his drink problem, saying he started boozing when he was 15 years old.
He opens up about the lure of the liquor cabinet as he'd walk by and how he'd sometimes bang a shot of tequila at 9am or 10am.
He tells Dr Brian Pennie how he used to lie to Vogue about having a drink and he'd be "almost aggressive back".
He said: "There was a period where I would walk past that liquor cabinet, you know, at 9/10am, and I'd be drawn by it, you know.
"And I would sometimes open the liquor cabinet, and I just bang a shot of tequila or something, put the bottle back, walk past it, you know, that's in the morning.
"And, you know, Vogue would say, like, ‘have you had a drink today?’ And I'd say, ‘I haven't. Why have you asked me if I had a drink today?’ almost aggressive back."
Spencer enlisted the help of Chip Somers, who sobered him up for the first time.
"He looked at me and he went, ‘have you had a drink today?' I said, ‘No’, because I hadn't, because I knew I was meeting this guy who's going to be assessing my drinking problem, and I hadn't.
"And he said, ‘How much did you drink last night?’
"He was like, ‘you absolutely stink. You stink of whiskey.’ And he literally looked at me and he said, ‘When we finish this meeting and you leave, I'm going to have to open the windows in here so that my next client doesn't think that I've been drinking. That's how bad you smell.’"
He said he made him "feel like shit" and challenged him not to drink for seven days.
"He made me feel like shit and then he challenged me - he did it on purpose.
"He's really good at his job and I left, and I was like, ‘I'll show him’. And all of a sudden it became about showing him, you know, not doing it for me. It was doing it for him."
But he says he still enjoys an odd glass of wine with his wife and wouldn’t say he is in recovery – but he no longer drinks in secret.
"I don't think I'm in recovery. To be honest, if I felt like having a drink, I would have a drink.. It doesn't frighten me anymore. I don't need to drink in secrecy. I don't need to hide it.
"If I fancy a glass of wine with my wife, I'll have one. She wouldn't care. We've gone through it all and come out the other side, and it feels good to have that element of control, something that I've come across again and again. I was definitely proud of my own journey."
When Spencer was 10 years old, he tragically lost his brother Michael.
But the ex-Made in Chelsea star said he never blamed his brother’s death for his drinking woes.
He said: "I've never felt comfortable blaming Mike's death for my behaviour. You know, I was a hedonist. I loved going out. I loved drinking. I loved being the life and soul of the party. So a lot of this behaviour is on me.
"Vogue always references that I didn't cry at the birth of any of our kids like that's not to say that that experience wasn't moving for me. I just physically find it difficult to cry. I have therapy every so often, and he said that there's all kinds of ways that we can unlock that, but I've never bothered.
"I'm quite hardened in that sense. And sometimes I wish I wasn't," he added.
Hooked airs on RTE One on Wednesday at 9:35pm.
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