Earlier this week Adrian Chiles opened up about his reliance on alcohol, but today the full extent of his drinking was revealed during an shocking segment on GMB.
The TV presenter, 51, recorded his drinking for a new documentary and discovered that he was drinking 100 units a week, and once consumed 33 units of booze in a single day.
Speaking on Good Morning Britain, Chiles said he didn’t think he had a problem with drink because it didn’t seem to be affecting him; he didn’t get hangovers, drink alone or get in fights while drunk.
The show brought out dozens of glasses of beer and wine to reveal what a hundred units actually looked like, with Chiles admitting that it made him question why he had chosen to drink so much.
Adrian Chiles, 51, said he didn’t realise how much he was drinking after discovering he drinks up to a hundred units of alcohol a week. Pictured on Good Morning Britain on Friday
Chiles, who is a Radio 5 Live presenter, had ‘niggles’ of worry about his drinking habits before he found out how much he actually drinks.
He said: ‘I kind of knew, it niggled away at me, that a day without drink didn’t really feel like a proper day. I was just aware I kind of needed it, but I thought, “why did I need it?”.
‘Why did I need those one or two pints early evening, why, if I had a party tonight with a hundred of my best friends, why would I be looking forward to it less if I couldn’t drink?
‘I just thought it was a bit odd. I thought, hang on, I’m 51 now, I’ve been drinking since I was 15, it’s always been a massive part of my life.’
The show brought out dozens of glasses of beers and wine (pictured) in the GMB studio to show what a hundred units of booze actually looks like
Chiles didn’t think he had an alcohol problem because it didn’t seem to be affecting him; he didn’t get hangovers, drink alone or get in fights while drunk. Pictured enjoying a bottle of beer in a snap posted to Instagram
In Drinkers Like Me he discovered that in one Saturday he drank four pints of Guinness in the morning, then a couple of beers, a bottle of wine and then more beer at a friend’s birthday party.
This added up a whopping 33 units, which made him realise he was ‘in trouble’.
Chiles continued: ‘I thought, I’m in trouble here, I didn’t realise how much I was drinking. Superficially I had no bad effects from it, it didn’t affect me, I was kind of too good at it.
‘I don’t get hangovers, I don’t fight, I don’t wake up with strangers, I don’t drink during the day, I don’t drink alone. All these things I didn’t do, but in fact I was a very heavy drinker without realising it.’
He admitted that looking at all the glasses of alcohol was shocking to him as it made him wonder if he had needed all the booze he used to drink. Pictured: 100 units of alcohol on Good Morning Britain
Chiles explores his reliance on alcohol in new BBC documentary Drinkers Like Me, which airs on Monday. Pictured: A promotional picture for the show
When he looked at the amount of glasses of beer and wine in the studio, he admitted that it made him think about the alcohol he’d consumed in his life.
He said: ‘I’m looking at that now, I’m looking at all the drinks I’ve had in my life and I’m thinking how many of those drinks did I really need, or want, or enjoy and how many were out of habit?
‘Just because I was out and somebody wanted me to have one and I was just doing it because I couldn’t think of anything else to do. I just want to shrink it down to the drinks that I really want and need.’
In his new documentary he learns that his drinking puts him at risk of liver failure, cirrhosis and death.
He admitted he’d had ‘niggles’ of worry about his drinking habits before he found out how much he actually drinks. Pictured with Good Morning Britain presenters Ranvir Singh and Charlotte Hawkins
He recently called himself ‘undoubtedly dependent’ on alcohol and vowed to cut back his drinking. Pictured: A promotional picture for Drinks Like Me
Adrian, who split from wife Jane Garvey in 2009 has decided to address the normality of drinking in the new documentary, revealed he doesn’t ‘drink more’ because he’s divorced now and said his love of booze wasn’t a factor in the demise of their marriage.
Speaking to the Radio Times, he said he was ‘undoubtedly dependent’ on alcohol.
He said: ‘The word ‘alcoholic’ is outdated, but I am undoubtedly dependent on alcohol to some extent – and if I am, thousands of others are.
‘The only days I literally drank nothing were when I was broadcasting in the evening.’