Spencer Matthews recalls how alcohol took over his life and threatened to end his relationship before he made the sudden decision to get sober.
During his years as a city estate agent in London and up to his Made In Chelsea days, drinking became a cornerstone of the TV star’s life.
But it was when he met and married his wife Vogue Williams in his late 20s that alcohol became a problem.
Speaking on The Mail Everything I know about me podcast, Spencer admitted: “Tit was certain that I would lose Vogue if I continued to drink as I was drinking.’
Spencer Matthews recalls how alcohol took over his life and threatened to end his relationship with Vogue Williams before making the sudden decision to get sober (pictured in 2017)
Speaking to The Mail’s Everything I Know About Me podcast, Spencer admitted: ‘It was a certainty that I would lose Vogue if I kept drinking the way I was drinking’ (pictured together this year)
He recalled how he and Vogue went partying together in the early months of their romance, after meeting on the 2017 reality show The Jump, admitting “we had a very social, quite drunk relationship.”
Alcohol even brought the couple, now parents of three, together, as he admits he was perhaps most dependent on booze around the time they met. ‘I think anyone who was at The Jump will tell you it was quite something,” he explained.
“Even though I sobered up when I made it to the finals 10 days before the finals, I just went and won!”
“When I won, I kind of did a mental bow and lost everything. Then I started to feel like I was a real mess. And that was a bit unusual for me.”
However, Spencer explained that even though Vogue was “drinking and drinking to get drunk every few days,” he would continue “and that was every day.”
‘She doesn’t mind when I tell her she’s a big drinker. She actually hates alcohol, she can’t stand being hungover. She doesn’t like the taste of liquor, but she drinks to get drunk. At the time, she drank every few days to get drunk. Now it’s once a month,” Spencer explained of Vogue’s drinking habits.
‘On the days off I drank and she didn’t. And then she got back on the horse. And when she stopped, I continued and it was every day, and she drew attention to it.”
Around this time, Vogue became pregnant with their eldest son Theodore. ‘MThe fact that she was drinking was emphasized by the fact that she wasn’t drinking,” Spencer said.
‘There was a general level of disappointment on her part about me. That felt bad, right, because I always wanted people close to me to be proud of me,” he added.
After The Jump, Spencer struggled to find more work, while his wife’s career flourished. ‘I started to feel like a real loser. She would do these amazing things and travel while pregnant and land these TV jobs and present these documentaries. And I would be home.”
Spencer went ‘on a mental bender’ after winning reality show The Jump in 2017 – the show where he met Vogue
He recalled how he and Vogue went out to party in the early months of their romance, admitting ‘we had a very social, quite drunken relationship’ (pictured in 2017).
Spencer’s turning point came after a drunken evening in 2017, after drinking most of a bottle of whiskey at the London home he shared with Vogue.
When he drunkenly got into bed with Vogue, who was pregnant, he remembers telling her he was going to quit. “She didn’t really believe me, and neither did anyone else,” he admitted, but “I didn’t drink for three and a half years, I just stopped.”
And to highlight his turning point, he signed up for his first ultramarathon the next morning: he ran six and a half marathons in five days in the Sahara. and explained, “I did it to punish myself for the wasted years.”
Spencer launched his low-alcohol beverage company, The Clean Liquor Company, in 2019.
His next challenge is a world record attempt, announcing this week that he plans to run the ‘most consecutive marathons on sand’: thirty marathons in thirty days in the Joranian desert.
Spencer and Vogue have both now drunk considerably less and are parents of three children: Theodore, Gigi and Otto
His next challenge is a world record attempt, announcing this week that he plans to run the ‘most consecutive marathons on sand’
To safely prepare for the challenge, which will take place from July 29 to August 27, Spencer will undergo a grueling training regimen, running more than 1,800km in preparation and acclimatizing his body using sweat tests, training for up to 15 consecutive workouts . days in a laboratory-controlled heat chamber set at 40 degrees Celsius and 40% humidity, in an attempt to mimic the conditions of the Jordanian desert.
The star has been training hard for weeks, with his weight loss prompting him to recently hit back at critics who claimed he looked ‘too skinny’ as he declared he is in the best shape of his life.
Listen to the Mail’s Everything I Know About Me: Spencer Matthews podcast on Mail Podcasts, Spotify or Apple podcasts
Everything I Know About Me – Spencer Matthews: A weekly podcast series that explores the defining moments in the lives of some of today’s most fascinating personalities.