Coronation Street legend Kevin Kennedy drank a bottle of vodka on his way to work daily before show bosses "saved" his life, and he quit the booze.
The actor, 60, who played TV favourite Normal 'Curly' Watts for twenty years, turned his life around after suffering a seizure and waking up in an ambulance in the late 1990s.
The star's addiction was so severe that even when his wife Claire left him he wasn't upset, as he thought it was a good thing because he could drink on his own without hiding, he told The Sun.
Remembering the turning point, in May 1998, Kevin said he had just returned from a booze heavy holiday in Barbados with Claire and decided to go cold turkey.
Two days later, during a shopping trip in Manchester, the actor drank a Diet Coke and then blacked out.
He said: “I came to in the ambulance and it scared the hell out of me. I knew I would die if I carried on but emotionally I didn’t get it, the addiction was telling me it was normal.”
After that, he finally revealed his secret addiction to show bosses, and was sent to The Priory Rehab Clinic.
Looking back as he nears 25 years of sobriety, Kevin said he believed the show "saved my life."
In a 2020 interview, Kevin said: “I will for ever be grateful to ITV for sending me to rehab and giving me a chance.”
He described himself as "maintenance drinker", and was never out of control, he told The Sun.
"I knew my drinking wasn’t normal - no one else I knew drank in the morning, cancelled plans because they couldn’t get a drink or only went on holidays where they could drink the most - but I couldn’t stop," he said.
After getting sober Kevin pursued music, a great passion of his, and left the soap in 2003, the intensity of two professions becoming too much.
Having performed at Reading Festival and the West End, he is now touring with the Rock of Ages show, playing Bourbon Room owner Dennis Dupree.
In 2020, Kevin spoke of how he would love to return to the cobbles.
He said: “I’d love to come back to Coronation Street.
“I still have a great relationship with ITV and... I think Curly would have some stories to tell.
“Coronation Street has changed a lot and evolved with the times.
“It’s a different soap from when I was in it, but when I joined it was a different show from 10 years before that."
More than 22 million viewers watched the episode in 1995 when supermarket assistant manager and former binman Curly got hitched to barmaid Raquel, played by Sarah Lancashire.
Fans still call out “Raquel” at Kevin when they bump into him.
He said: “That will never leave, and it’s a humbling experience.
“When people do talk to you in the street or shout ‘Raquel’ and things like that it’s a real compliment.
“It means they remember your work."
