Brave Keith Chegwin confessed he considered suicide before successfully battling ten year booze addiction
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Keith Chegwin considered suicide after a decade-long battle with booze that saw him swigging cough mix and hiding whisky in bushes.
The Celebrity Big Brother star, who died on Sunday evening, revealed he cut himself off from the world, and admitted: “I wanted to die and just end it all. I’d had enough.”
In his book Shaken Not Stirred, Keith said he first got a taste for booze aged 10, when he downed a bottle of Babysham at a party.
Alcohol took over his life in the 80s, when he was married to Swap Shop co-star Maggie Philbin and would drink two bottles of whisky a day.
(Image: Channel 5)
Watch Keith open up about his booze battle:
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But after his first spell in rehab, he was soon back to his old tricks, sneaking off to the shop to buy whisky.
“I drank half and threw the bottle in a hedge on the way home. Then went back and finished it later,” he said.
“And a new trick I’d picked up at the clinic was drinking cough mixture.”
He admitted it took three trips to rehab to clean up but by then Maggie had left with their daughter.
Opening up about the dark days to his CBB housemates, Keith, who was been sober for 23 years until his death, said: “I hid it everywhere. I’d do all the tricks, I hid it in suit pockets, guttering and down the back of the sofa, car, everywhere.”