EastEnders icon Patsy Palmer has revealed that she’s drinking again years after quitting alcohol and drugs. The actress previously wouldn’t allow a drop of alcohol in her house, but can now enjoy the odd tipple without going over the edge.
Patsy – real name Julie Anne Merkell – started out as a child star, first going on stage when she was just six. Alongside her early career, she also told the Mirror that she had her first drink at eight, before taking solvents aged 11 and cocaine aged 13.
The Celebrity Big Brother housemate had a reputation as a party girl when she joined EastEnders as Bianca Jackson in 1993, and juggled partying and working with being a then-single mum to her first son Charley. She eventually got help, and went teetotal in 2004.
Just before entering the CBB house on April 7, Patsy, 52, revealed that she no longer had an ‘all or nothing’ approach to alcohol. “No, occasionally I’ll have a glass of wine, it doesn’t bother me, with food. I don’t do anything rigid anymore,” she shared.
Patsy added: “I went through many years of following certain programs, which I think are great, I’m not saying anyone should do this because I think all of the programs for people are amazing, but I haven’t followed anything for as long, I’ve just found my own way in life and it should be about that.
“It should give every single individual a way to live their life, hopefully, whether they decide to continue with it forever or whether they decide to go find their own way and do what they want to do, that should be the goal.”
The BBC star concluded: “There are some people I know who could never have a drop of alcohol ever again, I did think that would be the case for me because that’s what certain programs tell you, but I was never really a big drinker anyway.”
Speaking to the Mirror in the past, Patsy revealed that she used to pull all-nighters before heading onto the soap set, and that it was an EastEnders boss who helped her get clean.
The Strictly Come Dancing star admitted: “You can get dressed up and look great but inside you might be dying. I felt like that. In this business you can get away with murder. You try to make yourself look nice from the outside, but if you’re not feeling good inside, what’s the point?
“Quite often, I’d party all night and go into work the next morning, just grabbing sleep on the set whenever I could. I don’t know how I survived.”
Patsy is now happily married to Richard Merkell and is a mum of four, but her first marriage to filmmaker Nick Love in the summer of 1998 lasted just five months.
She was on the verge of a nervous breakdown when she was helped into rehab by a producer at EastEnders and finally broke free from her addictions and became teetotal in September 2004.
She said of her attitude to alcohol at the time – before deciding to reintroduce moderation: “We don’t have drink in our house. Richard is a social drinker but he doesn’t drink at home. I follow the 12-step programme from Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous.”
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