Calum Best talks about bankruptcy and alcohol addiction on Ireland AM.

TV3 GROUP RELEASE                                                                               

IMMEDIATE: Monday 21st October 2013

 

 

Calum Best talks about bankruptcy and alcohol addiction on Ireland AM.

 

Calum Best joined Sinead Desmond and Mark Cagney on Ireland AM this morning to talk about the link between alcohol dependency and genetics.

 

The former model discussed how losing his father sent him on a downward spiral and his recent filing for bankruptcy.

 

To view the full interview, click on this link:

http://www.tv3.ie/3player/show/184/70622/1/Ireland-AM

 

Ireland AM airs every morning this week from 7am on TV3. 

 

Reality TV star Calum Best appeared on Ireland AM this morning to talk about a new campaign which highlights the genetic link associated with alcohol dependency. The 32-year-old son of footballing legend, George Best, joined Sinead Desmond and Mark Cagney and discussed his current financial situation after recently filing for bankruptcy.

 

“Let’s just say I’m dealing with it. It’s not a good one but I’m dealing with it. It is there and it is current so it’s something I’m dealing with yeah.”

 

“I hate to say it but I went nuts at a young age and went through it and my poor daddy went through it a few times as well you know what I mean. I can smile about it because now this bankruptcy is something that’s happened to me a long time ago that’s coming back to me. It’s almost like a final chapter of me getting out of the way to move on forward with a healthier more productive lifestyle which I’ve already been doing for the last few years but that’s why this campaign is so important because I want to share my story but also talk about when I made this documentary [Brought Up By Booze] and met all these other kids who had it 10 times worse than I did with an alcohol dependent parent and just try to raise awareness.”

 

When Mark questioned how a man, who had been so prevalent in the media for almost ten years, could become bankrupt, Calum explained that it was mistakes he made at a young age that have led to this.

 

“Well the thing is that back in the day it was good and still is. Life is the best it’s been for a long time. I’m in the best health, the best shape I’ve ever been in but it’s the time of 24 years old, losing my father to alcohol is when I didn’t think too much about the money and the things, I was in a real bad place. It’s those mistakes I made back then that have caught up with me. Now, like I said, I’m in a better place and I can talk about these campaigns because I want to help people raise awareness of, don’t make those mistakes I made, so on and so forth.”

 

Speaking about how he thinks his father knew he had a drinking problem, Calum said his father tried therapy and several other methods to control his drinking but being an ‘old school Irish man’ he never wanted to be told what to do.

 

“All I could do was to be there with my dad to say ‘I’m there for you’ and we became close. When he got a new liver, he came out of surgery and we were there. It was one of those ‘Oh God, we see the future and it’s bright’ but then I think his illness came right back in. By the time I knew my dad, his illness had taken over his brain. I never really knew him as a sober father. We had great talks about football and girls, the lot but when it came down to bonding and really getting deep, I never was able to do that because of the alcohol illness had taken over my then.”

 

Calum went on to say that although he drank almost every night for years after losing his father, he never considered himself to be an alcoholic.

 

“For me, it was a case of I was never worried about it. I only started to worry about it, and my poor mother started to worry about it, when I was about 24 and like I said I lost my father and I started to drink every night and I started to drink heavily every night. I would always compare and say to myself ‘oh is it the same as how much my dad was drinking?’ My dad would maybe wake up at eight and start drinking a couple of glasses of wine and then through to the brandys and by 8 o’clock at night it would be a disaster.”

 

He also believes that his father knew that he was dependent on alcohol.

 

“I think he probably knew. I think if he was waking up at 8 o’clock in the morning and going to a drink but what I found out through filming a documentary called ‘Brought Up by Booze’ about children of alcoholics is that the illness is so intense that it tells you to cut out anybody who tells you not to drink because your brain tells you ‘No, no, no! That person doesn’t like you because they’re stopping you from being happy.”

 

Calum said he came to the realisation that he had to look after himself but he still enjoys a drink.

 

“I think for me, I just reached a point in my head and said ‘Calum you know how this story ends. You deserve to do yourself better, your family better, maybe try to use this as a catalyst to help other people with their issues as well.’ Everybody I know somehow, somewhere, deals with some alcohol dependent person in their family and it affects everybody around them.”

 

“I don’t want to go around saying I don’t drink because I’m no born again Christian or anything Iike that. I still enjoy [a drink]. I can’t even hack it like I used to anyway, you know what I mean. I’m in the gym. I eat well compared to what I used to be like, six years later now I’m in the gym every day. I do well. The enjoyment of alcohol is few and far between. And for me now at 32 years old, and with a bit more of a comfortable brain I want to get there and talk about reducing your alcohol use because I want to help people that might have been in my situation at 18, 19, 20.”

 

When Mark questioned why Calum started drinking, knowing his father battled with alcoholism, he explained that he did not know the genetic connection.

 

“Recently I found out that you’re 60 per cent more likely if you have an alcoholic parent, that it’s in your genes as well. I didn’t know that at 18 years old.”

 

“I didn’t realise until I was 25, 26 years old when I was going around doing these studies meeting these alcohol dependent people, meeting the kids, meeting the charities that I found out there’s ways to learn about this. I found an organisation called NACOA [National Organisation for Children of Alcoholics] that kids can call up to and find out these things. I didn’t know that at the time. I was just dealing with my dad, face-to-face, who after two glasses of wine was fun but after a full day of drinking was a disaster.”

 

Calum is a patron of NACOA [National Association for Children of Alcoholics] and is in town to support the ‘Reduce Your Alcohol Use’ campaign.

 

More info: www.nacoa.org.uk / www.alcoholireland.ie

 

Ireland AM airs every morning this week from 7am on TV3. 

 

Images have been sent to your picture desks

 

ENDS

 

For further information
Ciara Byrne

Press Officer

00353 1 419 3329

00353 87 319 9732

 

Sharon McHugh
Head of Press & Publicity

00353 1 419 3430
00353 87 922 4143

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