Millie Mackintosh says a mother 'fueled the fire' of alcohol struggles

Millie Mackintosh has opened up about her battle with alcohol and admitted it threatened her marriage.

Speaking about her anxiety, the 35-year-old mother of two says she began drinking problematically as a teenager. But it was only when her husband Made by Chelsea His co-star Hugo Taylor offered him an ultimatum that collapsed a few days later and he decided he needed to change.

The couple first met on the popular reality TV show, which follows members of London’s affluent neighborhood to explore relationships and personal drama. McIntosh was previously married to rapper Professor Green before marrying his ‘wife’ Taylor in 2018. They have two daughters.

“If you don’t stop drinking, it will end our marriage,” Mackintosh told me. You are the Daily Mail Magazine

“The morning after her best friend’s wedding was a lovely glamorous ceremony that, well, I ruined for her. Most weddings are a blur.

“I know I got very emotional, I cried, then I got angry, it was a new thing that started when I became a mother.”

However, things escalated when McIntosh admitted that he had tried to assault his partner.

Mackintosh wrote a book about his experience of being a “bad drunk”. (Getty Images for Atlantis The Ro)

“I’m embarrassed to say I had a fight with Hugo and tried to hit him,” he said.

Although the ultimatum was “terrifying”, Mackintosh said a few days later that he made up his mind for good after he “fell to the ground”.

“I couldn’t get air in and everything started going black,” he said of the aftermath of the drinking in the days after. I felt this cold fear that I would never see my two little girls again. “I really believed I was going to die.”

Mackintosh who wrote a book titled Bad Drunk: How I Got Rid of Alcohol – And You Can Toosaid that when it came to fighting alcohol, a mother “poured fire on it.”

“I had my first drink during the girls’ shower, and I was excited to take them down for the night so I could have another drink,” she continued.

The couple has been married since 2018 and has two daughters (Getty Images for Atlantis The Ro)

“That was my reward. In some ways, when I became a mum, drinking became worse because suddenly I could justify it. Society told me I had earned it.

I was already struggling and a mother’s intensity burned on that fire. “I felt like drinking was being sold directly to me as something necessary to cope with motherhood.”

Since getting sober in August 2022, McIntosh said he’s in a much better place.

“Sobriety gave me a gift I didn’t know I needed: freedom,” she said.

Freedom to be myself, freedom to be the mother I want to be and my daughters deserve, freedom to be introverted, freedom to be healthy, and freedom not to cover any part of me with a manufactured air of confidence.

If you are affected by this article, you can contact the following organizations for support: actiononaddiction.org.uk, mind.org.uk, nhs.uk/livewell/mentalhealth, mentalhealth.org.uk.