Ulrika Jonsson revealed she is ‘making the biggest change’ of her life as she plans to spend Christmas Day alone this year.
The TV presenter, 57, who is a proud mum of four, admitted she nearly ‘lost her mind to anxiety and alcohol’ over the past year and opened up about ‘struggling to cope’.
Ulrika said she is more than happy to be on her own this year and instead plans to get some fresh air, filthy food and curl up on the sofa.
In her column for The Sun, she wrote: ‘Christmas Day, in just over a week, is going to look very different indeed to anything before because I’m going to be home alone. On my own. By myself.
‘This year has been a year of massive change. I nearly lost my mind to anxiety and alcohol. I struggled very hard to cope with a life I didn’t feel well enough equipped to deal with. I honestly wasn’t sure if I would even see Christmas this year.
‘I was hanging on by the skin of my teeth with only alcohol as medication for my broken soul. Until, that is, I discovered that alcohol was not the solution. It wasn’t even the problem. I needed to change me if I wanted to keep going.’
Ulrika Jonsson revealed she is ‘making the biggest change’ of her life as she plans to spend Christmas Day alone this year
The TV star, who is a proud mum to four children, admitted she is also glad she ‘doesn’t have to serve hand and foot’ on anyone over the Christmas period as she celebrates six months being sober
Ulrika revealed she is now ‘over six months sober’ and is excited to spend the festive season alone to be able to have a ‘break from people-ing and life-ing.’
The TV star admitted she is also glad she ‘doesn’t have to serve hand and foot’ on anyone over the Christmas period.
However she will be visited by three of her four children (the other busy working abroad) on Christmas Eve.
Ulrika shares son Cameron, 30, with first husband John Turnbull, daughter Bo, 24, whom she shares with ex Marcus Kempen, daughter Martha, 20, with ex-husband Lance Gerrard-Wright and son Malcome, 16, with ex Brian Monet.
In October, she lifted the lid on her decision to go booze-free and how she realised that her relationship with alcohol was a destructive one.
The presenter revealed that she used to use alcohol to ‘remember the good times’ and would often ‘black out’ after binge drinking alone.
She told The Sun: ‘[Alcohol] stifled my anger. I was angry with the world for all sorts of reasons. I would drink to remember the good times and to forget the present bad times’.
Ulrika explained that while she drank to ‘kill her feelings of anxiety’ she was in fact a ‘functioning binge drinker’ and never vomited or appeared dishevelled.
The TV presenter, 57, admitted she nearly ‘lost her mind to anxiety and alcohol’ over the past year and opened up about ‘struggling to cope’
Ulrika said she is more than happy to be on her own this year and instead plans to get some fresh air, filthy food, lighting fragrant candles and some TV streaming
She said: ‘Christmas Day is going to look very different indeed to anything before because I’m going to be home alone. On my own. By myself’
She continued: ‘This year has been a year of massive change. I nearly lost my mind to anxiety and alcohol. I struggled very hard to cope with a life. I wasn’t sure if I would even see Christmas this year’
‘But the number of times I would black out and not recall the night before when I had been drinking alone, were increasing’.
‘[Alcohol] was the perfect escape from my woes. When I drank, I felt I became a better, nicer person, and more equipped to cope. The truth, of course, was quite the opposite. Drinking worsened my anxiety which meant I would ‘self-medicate’ with a drink. This would calm me down, temporarily, then it would return with a vengeance.
Ulrika recalled how her pal telephoned one morning to reveal they’d spoken the night before when the TV favourite was so drunk she wasn’t making sense.
The Swedish star said that she ‘sobbed like a child’ following the chat and was ‘full of despair’ as she realised she did in fact have a destructive relationship with alcohol.
Heavy episodic drinking refers to consuming 60g or more of alcohol – the equivalent of 7.5 units – on at least one occasion in the past 30 days.
This is the same as drinking just over three pints of medium-strength beer, or five small glasses of wine, or around seven single-shot gin and tonics in one sitting.