Ref Nigel fancies a brew on his desert island

KNOW what Nigel Owens would take with him if he was stuck on a desert island?

Welsh tea bags. Yes, that’s right. Nothing more than the humble tea bag as his luxury item.

The legendary rugby ref made his revelation when he was a guest on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs today.

He also chose Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind In The Willows as the book he would take with him and Welsh tea bags as his luxury item.

Speaking to presenter Kirsty Young, the 45-year-old opened up about his battle with bulimia and struggling to come to terms with his sexuality.

He said the intense pressure of refereeing the 2015 Rugby World Cup final was nothing compared to the struggle to accept that he was gay.

The rugby union match official recalled how he was just 20 minutes from death when he once tried to take his life. Following this, he came out publicly in 2007 after realising he could not live a lie.

Speaking about his suicide attempt, he told Kirsty Young: “I cried that night and realised, ‘I need to grow up’.

“Refereeing that World Cup final between Australia and New Zealand in front of 85,000 people and the millions of people watching at home, scrutinising every single decision you make under a huge amount of pressure, was nothing compared to the challenge of accepting who I was.

“Accepting who I was then, saved my life.”

Owens, 45, was born and raised in the village of Mynyddcerrig, Carmarthenshire, but realising he was gay felt “totally alien” to him. He said he “would have done anything to be ‘normal’ in people’s eyes”.

Owens also talked about his health struggles. He tried to lose weight and became bulimic; at another point, in an attempt to gain weight, he started going to the gym, then became hooked on steroids. He also described going to a doctor and saying: “l do not want to be gay. Can I get chemically castrated?”

Owens eventually came out, at the age of 34, to his mother Mair. She had already guessed his secret.

He told Desert Island Discs: “I was brought up to be honest, and here I was lying to the most important person in my life. It was affecting my life. Unless you are happy with who you are, you cannot excel and be the best you can be at whatever you are doing.”