Linda Robson's family begged their local shopkeeper to stop selling her alcohol.
Linda Robson begged strangers for vodka
The 'Loose Women' star has opened up about the details of her alcoholism in a searing new memoir and admitted the heartbreaking moment her family begged the local business owner to stop her from buying alcohol.
In an extract from the book, published in the Daily Mail newspaper, Linda, 65, wrote: "I’d come out of filming and on the way home I’d ask the driver to stop so I could pop out and get a little bottle of vodka, which I’d get into bed with and drink until I passed out.
"My family had to go round to our local shop and tell the man he wasn’t to serve me alcohol any more. So I started going to a shop a bit further away where they didn’t know me. In the end the family had to start locking me in the house, which was the only way to stop me.
"I know that sounds like drastic action, but they were at the end of their tethers. Even that didn’t rein me in. I would try to climb up the wall of our roof terrace to get out over the other side."
Linda also humiliatingly revealed she would "beg strangers" for vodka.
She said: "Or I would go and stand at the gate and beg strangers passing by to go and get me some vodka."
And, Linda said she hit breaking point when her daughter Lauren told her she could no longer mind her grandchildren alone.
She said: "The most heartbreaking moment of this whole period came when Lauren, my eldest, told me I couldn’t look after my two little granddaughters on my own any more.
"She was also becoming concerned about the thought of me doing harm to myself in front of them. Some days I’d walk into a shop with one of them, buy a little bottle of vodka and then secretly drink it when she wasn’t looking, which I feel awful admitting to now."
Linda's family eventually secured her a place at the Nightingale Hospital in London but she struggled with suicidal thoughts.
However, Linda credits The Priory and AA with helping her to finally overcome her issues with alcohol.
She said: "I haven’t had a drink... and I’m absolutely fine to be around alcohol. I’m never tempted."
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