Denise Welch says she was initially “in denial” about how her spiralling drug and alcohol use impacted musician son Matty Healy.
The former Coronation Street actress, 66, has been open in the past about how she has suffered with clinical depression throughout her life.
This led to Welch turning to drugs and alcohol, which inevitably made things worse and 11 years ago she made the decision to go completely sober.
She shares Healy - the lead singer of band The 1975 - with actor ex Tim Healy.
Welch held her hands up while appearing on the ADHD Chatter podcast after host Alex Partridge asked “what did you do right” to raise a famous son.
To which she corrected: "I did lots of things wrong.
“Matty and I, we had to have a come to Jesus about things that I was in denial about, how my behaviours have impacted on him. But he has also said 'but then again mum, if our house wasn't a bit rock and roll, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing.
"But you have to take accountability and I was very defensive. All alcoholics are very defensive and all alcoholics, when pushed into a corner, will blame somebody else for why that has happened to them, 'it's my illness, it's because of this, it's because I was getting a divorce', it's not, there are not excuses, there are reasons."
Welch went on to speak about The 1975’s song She Lays Down, which Healy said was inspired by her post-natal depression.
She added: “My son wrote the most incredible song on one of his albums called She Lays Down.
“For anyone who wants to hear poetry in motion about what we have to a degree, [this is] his version of my illness when he was older and he remembered that when he was old enough to understand, because my kids just thought I was poorly, I just went to bed because I was poorly.
“They were protected from what it was. They didn’t understand at young ages, especially Matthew. But when he was old enough, when he was grown, I told him about depression and how you lose the ability to love and how I used to lay down praying, not to God because I’m not religious, but to whatever, to the universe, to whatever, to help me love my son again.
“It really obviously impacted on him because he knows the relationship we have and the love we have for each other.”
