Food writer Jack Monroe has revealed she was groped by ‘household-name male journalists’ during her alcoholism as she celebrates more than a year of sobriety.
Jack, 31, who has written six cookbooks, bravely opened up about her drinking habits in a frank article in the Observer, revealing she would consume 200 units a week in secret.
In the first person piece she revealed she would use alcohol as a crutch for dealing with newfound fame, drinking in awkward situations and parties where she mingled with celebrities.
The poverty activist also said she was ‘pinned to walls’ by male journalists who ‘forced their hands inside her shirt’ at the height of her drinking problem.
Food writer Jack Monroe (pictured left during her alcoholism and right in 2019) has revealed she was groped by ‘household-name male journalists’ during her alcoholism as she celebrates more than a year of sobriety
She wrote: ‘I found myself pinned to walls by household-name male journalists, who forced their hands inside my shirt and tongues in my mouth, while telling myself I had asked for it, getting in that state.
‘I lost count of the number of boozy lunches with people I considered peers and colleagues that ended with disquieting gropes in the back of taxis and the niggling feeling that I should really stop allowing myself to be so vulnerable.’
The mother-of-one says there hasn’t been a day she hasn’t thought about alcohol and she would carry a note with her that read ‘Do not serve me – I am an alcoholic’.
In 2014 Monroe published two cookbooks A Girl Called Jack: 100 Delicious Budget Recipes’ and A Year in 120 Recipes. She’s also a keen activist, working with charities on poverty issues.
Jack took to Twitter this week to post a photo of her in the grips of her addiction, compared to one a recent one as sober.
Jack, 31, (pictured in 2015) who has written four cookbooks, bravely opened up about her drinking habits in a frank article in the Observer, revealing she would consume 200 units a week in secret
She wrote: ‘One year ago today – almost to the hour – I realised I had a serious problem with alcohol. I was using oblivion to deal with trauma, alienating friends and family, drinking 200+ units a week in secret. Today I am sober, my 5th book is at #20 in the charts, and I am alive. #odaat’.
But now Jack has been sober for 12 months, and says she wouldn’t have been able to do it without the love and support of her partner, Louisa.
‘I owe the greatest debt of gratitude to my partner, Louisa. It’s been a very difficult year in some respects; and there have been times where I have sat beside her at a dinner or out with friends, hissing out of the corner of my mouth that I am an adult and if I want a fucking drink I will have one.
‘She has cut short many of her own nights out to come home and hold me, and on the occasions where I have fallen off the wagon, she has picked me up and set me back on my feet, without anger or judgment, just love and concern,’ she said.
The mother-of-one (pictured in 2018) says there hasn’t been a day that she hasn’t thought about alcohol and she would carry a note with her that read ‘Do not serve me – I am an alcoholic’
Jack has been sober for 12 months, and says she wouldn’t have been able to do it without the love and support of her partner, Louisa (pictured right)
In the article, the mother says she has gained back ‘hundreds of hours’ she would have otherwise spent drinking or hungover, which she says has made her a better mother to her son.
She revealed that growing up in a home where foster children ‘came and went in a revolving door of trauma and disarray’, she was scared she would never be a good mother.
But she says she has watched her son ‘flourish’ with the attention she gives him now she has gained time back she would normally have spent drinking.
Journalist Jack Monroe (pictured in October 2017) says she has watched her son ‘flourish’ with the attention she gives him now she has gained time back she would normally have spent drinking
In the article, she admitted that alcohol was her way of coping with loneliness and past trauma but being sober has allowed her to make new friends while also nurturing old ones.
Jack said that over the past year, she gained support from online meetings and women-only groups for recovering alcoholics. She also had a sponsor, who was always at the other end of the phone.
The food writer first admitted she was an alcoholic in January of this year, in a candid first person article in the Guardian.
Later that month, Monroe announced her engagement to her TV producer partner, Louisa Compton.
The mother-of-one went on to talk about how first experiences with alcohol as a teenager.
Last year Jack (pictured in 2018) admitted that alcohol was her way of coping with past experiences including sexual abuse and poverty
She admitted that alcopops at the time gave her confidence when she felt shy. But it was when she moved to London in 2014 that her problems with alcohol escalated.
She also admitted that alcohol was her way of coping with past experiences including sexual abuse and poverty.
The writer even returned to her hometown of Southend in 2015, where she lives with her fiancee and son, in the hope to cut back on her ‘boozy London lifestyle’ but found that she quickly returned to drinking.
Jack has been open and honest about her sobriety, often tweeting about her journey to her 195,000 followers.
It was when she moved to London in 2014 that her problems with alcohol escalated and she started to drink a bottle of wine a night
The chef has previously spoken candidly about her struggles with mental health, quitting Twitter in March 2018 ‘for the good of her mental health’.
Monroe, who identifies as non-binary and is a campaigner and trans and women’s rights, said she would continue to support these causes but away from the ‘gaslighting, coercion and bullying’ she said she had faced on Twitter.
Monroe tweeted that it was ‘with a heavy heart and a weighty self-loathing’ that she had decided to leave the social media site ‘for my mental and physical health’.
Monroe said that, having been warned early on in her career ‘not to come out as gay’, she did it anyway.
She said that coming out as ‘non-binary (genderfluid/queer)’ lost her a £30k book deal and ‘invited a whole world of abuse from across the political and feminist spectrum’.
However, the mother made a return to social media later that year.
Monroe said she had spent the last two years defending women’s rights and trans rights, but that her bid to ‘educate, inform, support and explain’ had been at a ‘great personal and emotional cost’.
Monroe came to prominence in 2012 with her food blog A Girl Called Jack, now named Cooking on a Bootstrap.
She also wrote for publications including Essex newspaper The Echo and later The Huffington Post and The Guardian on topics including politics, poverty and cooking on a budget.
Last year, she abandoned her bid to win a seat in the House of Commons after receiving hate mail and suffering a deterioration in her health.
If you or someone you know is struggling with alcohol addiction please contact Alcoholics Anonymous for free help and advice.