She was on the brink of losing her husband.
And Denise Welch knew if she didn't make a change, her relationship with the man who was her rock, Lincoln Townley, would end.
The former Coronation Street star and Loose Women presenter felt she had no choice.
After years of battling her alcohol addiction, she vowed to ditch the bottle.
Now, seven years sober, Denise has opened up about her fight to change her life in a new book, the Mirror reports.
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And the actress says she is living proof it is never too late to turn your life around.
Denise explained: “The book is answering questions that people ask me on a daily basis.
"A lot of people want to make changes in their life, and they think that when they get to a certain age they can’t.
“But I’m the proof in the pudding that whatever age you are, you can turn your life around.
“This is about how I live my life sober.”
Denise, 60, married publicist Lincoln, 45, in 2013.
And at the beginning of their relationship she was forced to give him an ultimatum about HIS drinking.
Then she found herself in exactly the same uncomfortable predicament.
Now she admits she would never trade the life they have together for the taste of booze.
She said: “I don’t have temptation any more because of what sobriety has given us – our careers and our families.
“That is so much more important. It’s not something we miss any more.
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“We are very happy being boring. Boring is the new black. That was another title floated for the book.”
The book – Staying Sober, Staying Slim, Staying Sane – will reveal how the couple have had to change their lifestyles in order to be free from alcohol and its effects.
She said: “We don’t turn down going to a party if someone is celebrating. We just go early and when the mood changes we leave.
“We stay for the best bit of the party when people remember what they are saying.
“When we leave, people can’t remember anyway.
“The main problem about being sober is being around drunk people.
“Lincoln and I are not the drink police. If people want to have a drink, fill your boots.
“But we limit our time around drunk people because there is nothing more annoying, irritating and frustrating.”
Denise is also regularly asked if she can still have fun while being sober.
She said: “The main questions I get is, ‘Do you miss it?’ and the answer is no.
“And ‘Do you still have fun?’ That is an understandable question, whether you can have fun and be funny without alcohol.
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“But actually I don’t think I was funny with it. I was probably incredibly boring, but I used to think I was funny.
“You think you are God’s gift to the social world but you are actually not.”
She added with a laugh: “You probably are to other drunk people.”
TV favourite Denise quit booze back in 2012 but went on to replace her addiction with sugary treats so she ended up gaining two stone.
Today she credits her weight transformation, her new-found body confidence and incredible figure to the Lighter Life 5:2 diet plan and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.
Denise said: “The book covers how I changed my relationship with food. I still love things like chips, I just decide when to have them. I was eating as much as I was drinking.”
And being sober helps with the mum-of-two’s continuing battle with clinical depression.
She was first diagnosed with the condition after the birth of her eldest son Matt Healy, 30, who is frontman for rock band The 1975.
He too has battled his own addition with heroin.
In 2017 Matt wrote the track She Lays Down about his mum’s struggle.
And Denise has previously told how she believes she will live with mental illness until the day she dies.
A recent episode left her bed-bound for a week.
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She said: “Staying sane means that I now do everything I can to not make my own situation worse, which is what I was doing by self-medicating.
“I call my illness ‘the unwelcome visitor who makes uninvited calls’.
“But now he leaves quicker because I am looking after myself, so I am not compounding the illness.”
Denise became a household name in the 90s for her acclaimed role as Marsha Stubbs in Soldier Soldier.
Hit roles followed as Natalie Barnes in Coronation Street and Steph Haydock in Waterloo Road.
She was a popular member of the team on ITV’s Loose Women from 2005 to 2013, returning to the show in 2018.
But her book may yet be the most important work she has ever done.
Denise said: “I feel an obligation but a joyful obligation to be a voice for many people who don’t have a voice.
“I try to do my bit for those who are struggling with certain issues and have nobody to turn to.
“I’m very lucky and I do have people to turn to but there are people out there who do rely on people they see on television.
“So the book is more of a passionate response to what people ask me.
“I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes.”
So watch this space – Denise hopes to release her book this year.
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