Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I’ve kicked booze and drugs, and lost over 2st ..now, at 60, I don’t look too bad for an old bird
ago, when she and second husband Lincoln Townley, 45, decided to face their addictions together. Denise has just returned to Loose Women after a fiveyear break and loves still being busy at 60. She says: “I’ve got lots of work when many women are saying they feel invisible. I feel very visible.”
Being busy and sober have helped her battle her depression and anxiety. She still gets severe episodes – the last one lasted three days at Christmas.
But she says: “I will never have a drink again. My life, outside of my depressive episodes, is great now.
“Drink was a very negative influence in my life. I used to self medicate, living a life that was just not great.
“Face it – nobody has ever stood on a podium and said, ‘I would like to thank drink and drugs for where I am today’. I still have issues, but I deal with them in a sober way.” Tynemouth-born Denise is eager to stress sobriety “does not cure depression”. She says: “I’ve gone to
bed when everything is rosy and woken up with no change in circumstance and, bam, there it is. But being sober stops compounding it.” Having changed her life she must have felt suckerpunched when Matty revealed a four-year heroin addiction? The rocker checked into rehab last October but she insists: “I’m just proud of my children because they are following their dreams. They’re both doing brilliantly.”
Matty and Louis, who has landed a role in ITV’S Vera, know the pitfalls of fame. “They are under no illusion about the lack of glamour. They grew up around their dad and I on TV sets.” When it comes to 66-yearold Tim and his wife Joan Anderton, who he wed in 2015, Denise says: “Lincoln and I have a great friendship with Tim and Joan. We live near each other, we spend Christmas together every year, it’s lovely.” And Denise is now looking to adding to their extended family, admitting: “I’m just looking forward to grandchildren.”
Her novel The Mother’s Bond focuses on adopted children, so would she think of taking in a little one with Lincoln?
“No,” she says, emphatically.
Instead she’s focusing on saving lives. She lost weight using Lighterlife, an eating plan that also uses CBT to tackle the emotional reasons for overeating. And she now speaks to morbidly obese people, helping turn their lives around, and says: “Two people have reversed their Type 2 diabetes because of me.”
But she admits: “I know not to eat out of comfort, but I do still eat pies and fish and chips. I am a Geordie after all.”