Daughter 29 of chat show host Trisha Goddard Billie Dee Gianfrancesco on alcohol drug addiction

Trisha Goddard’s daughter has revealed her 16-year battle with drink and drugs – that began when her chat show host mother was ‘off solving everyone else’s problems’.

Billie Dee Gianfrancesco, 29, first drank alcohol during a family holiday to the Caribbean at the age of 12. 

She started ‘glugging’ spirits whenever she felt sad and got hooked to prescription painkillers after her mother, 61, accidentally gave them to her for period pain.

She slept around at her £5,000-a-term private school and when everyone found out, tried to kill herself at 16. 

In her later years she binged on wine, MDMA, cocaine and cannabis, while racking up £25,000 in payday loan debt.

After years of struggle she finally sought help last year and has been in drug and alcohol recovery since July.

But she says her relationship with her mother is still marred by her ‘guilt’ she was ‘off solving everyone else’s problems’ while one of her daughters reached the brink of suicide.

Billie (right) is pictured with her sister Madi (centre) and mother Trisha (left) on holiday 

She told The Mirror: ‘I think she’s proud of me but feels guilty, as when I needed her she was off solving everyone else’s problems. She wasn’t present enough to help me deal with mine.’

Four years before she had her first taste of alcohol, the family had moved back to the UK from Australia following Trisha’s split from Billie’s father Mark Greive. 

She attended the Langley School in Norfolk while her mother’s TV ratings were going through the roof, with over a million viewers tuning in to watch her confessional talk show.

But as she started to go off the rails she began sleeping around and had had 20 sexual partners – men and women – by the time she was 18.

Gossip travelled fast at school and unable to cope she tried to overdose. 

At 21 she had managed to graduate with a 2:1 in English Literature from Royal Holloway University, despite constant drinking and smoking cannabis.

But it was then her relationship broke down and she lost her job as a PR assistant at Ministry of Sound.

She was living in a £1,400-a-month London flat she could no longer afford and admits she ‘went crazy’. 

Billie told the newspaper she would wake up and put rum in her coffee, keep cocaine by her bedside and keep stashes of painkillers hidden in her handbag.

She took out 10 payday loans worth £25,000 to pay for her numerous addictions.

Billie (pictured on holiday) has told of how she would wake up and put rum in her coffee, keep cocaine by her bedside and keep stashes of painkillers hidden in her handbag

Billie (pictured on holiday) has told of how she would wake up and put rum in her coffee, keep cocaine by her bedside and keep stashes of painkillers hidden in her handbag

Billie told the Mirror: ‘I was passing out, waking up and doing it again. It was horrendous.’

She has been in therapy for three years, but one evening last summer she found an MDMA pill on her bedroom floor and swallowed it without thinking.

She had work the next day and couldn’t believe what she had done, she says. 

It was then she rang a mental health crisis line and signed up for alcohol and drug recovery.

Although she still has a good relationship with Trisha, she says there is still a long way to go.

But speaking to the newspaper the former actress and presenter said she is ‘immensely proud of both of her daughters,’ but admitted she could have done more to help Billie.

Billie (pictured with her sister Madi and mother Trisha in the 1990s) says her relationship with her mother is still marred by her 'guilt' she was 'off solving everyone else's problems' while one of her daughters reached the brink of suicide

Billie (pictured with her sister Madi and mother Trisha in the 1990s) says her relationship with her mother is still marred by her ‘guilt’ she was ‘off solving everyone else’s problems’ while one of her daughters reached the brink of suicide

When her mother fell ill, she confesses she felt torn between her two loved ones, and had to cope with her other daughter Maddison being rushed to hospital and put in intensive care, as well as the infidelity of Billie’s father Mark. 

She suffered her own mental health problems and was admitted to a psychiatric facility where she recalls being on ‘suicide watch’. 

She wrote in her memoir, As I Am: ‘I remember the bright lights of the A and E department. I remember being in a wheelchair. 

‘Then I woke up in a bed in a sparsely furnished room. I was cold, and I didn’t know what had happened.

“S***!” I thought. “I’m still here, still thinking.” A nurse came in, and I realised I was in a psychiatric hospital – and I was on “suicide watch”.

‘That precaution wasn’t necessary. When I took those pills and drank that brandy, it was not because I wanted to die. After Madi’s illness, Mark’s infidelity, the rows, the sleepless nights, the crazy hours at work, all I wanted was to be left alone.’

Billie is hopeful her story will encourage others in need to seek help. 

For confidential support 24/7 365 days a year, call the Samaritans on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org  

Trisha (pictured) suffered her own mental health problems and was admitted to a psychiatric facility where she recalls being on 'suicide watch'

Trisha (pictured) suffered her own mental health problems and was admitted to a psychiatric facility where she recalls being on ‘suicide watch’

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