She hasn’t returned to the hit ITV chat show since leaving in 2013.
Yet Denise Welch made her long awaited five-year comeback to Loose Women on Thursday as she joined the panel as a guest panellist.
The Coronation Street actress, 60, was joined by her former co-stars Kaye Adams and Nadia Sawalha, as well as Stacey Solomon for her debut.
Comeback: Denise Welch made her long awaited five-year comeback to Loose Women on Thursday as she joined the panel as a guest panellist
Denise spoke candidly about her battle with alcohol and her sobriety, revealing that it was after she smashed up her flat and got ‘blackouts’ that she decided to give it up.
She said: ‘It’s five years in October since I left, it’s incredible because it feels like I never left. My main thing in five years is I got married and I got sober.’
Denise revealed that her third husband, Lincoln Townley, 45, who she married in 2013 after meeting in a nightclub at 6am, got sober as he didn’t want to lose her after she saw a ‘side in him’ that she ‘didn’t like’ when he had been drinking.
Reunited: The Coronation Street actress, 60, was joined by her former co-stars Kaye Adams and Nadia Sawalha, as well as Stacey Solomon for her debut
Honest: Denise spoke candidly about her battle with alcoholism and her sobriety, revealing that it was after she smashed up her flat that she decided to give up alcohol
While she decided to give up alcohol after she ‘sprawled over a car’, smashed up her flat and got ‘blackouts’ after one particular night out.
She said: ‘It culminated in meeting Lincoln, we call it the madness, as he was a functioning alcoholic, he’s now a wonderful contemporary artist selling all over the world because of his sobriety and talent. He was then running a nightclub.
‘We met each other and everything about our relationship was wonderful, apart from when we drank and that was the downfall.’
She added: ‘I was doing a tour of a show at the time, I thought I was alright as I was doing a play and I couldn’t be drinking that much at the time. Fast forward two months later, that night, me and the girls in the show had a night where we invited our friends.
Love: Denise revealed that her third husband, Lincoln Townley, 45, who she married in 2013 after meeting in a nightclub at 6am, got sober before her as he didn’t want to lose her
‘I said to Lincoln, if I get drunk, I want you to tell me. Into the evening, he said: “You’re getting drunk, darling, paps are taking pictures through the window,” [I said]: “Don’t you tell me what to do!”
‘Next thing, I woke up in the morning, in the newspapers – pictures of me in that dress, sprawled over a car. Lincoln had videoed me, I’d smashed the flat up and he picked me up from the theatre that night, spoke to me all the way, told me how much he loved me…
‘I had complete blackouts. Door was off its hinges, I’d smashed a lamp. I had no recollection.
Sobriety: She said: ‘I realised this man was the love of my life, I gave it up that night and I haven’t touched a drop in six years. I am proud of myself, I’m proud of us both.’
Return: Denise hasn’t been on Loose Women since she left five years ago in 2013 as she was reunited with her co-stars
‘I realised this man was the love of my life, I gave it up that night and I haven’t touched a drop in six years. I am proud of myself, I’m proud of us both.’
She added: ‘I am a different person now. I’m not saying that I regret everything I did in my past, I had some wonderful years. But there is a side of me, I have lots of shame that I have to deal with.
‘Guilt and shame are very different, we all have guilt, but shame is something I have to deal with myself. And I do have a lot of that that I’m working on.
‘But what Lincoln and I have as a couple, and what we’ve achieved career-wise in the last five years – it’s brought me to a position that I feel I know who I am now.’
Candid: She added: ‘But what Lincoln and I have as a couple, and what we’ve achieved career-wise in the last five years – it’s brought me to a position that I feel I know who I am now.’