He just wanted his wife back, the woman he married on the beach who wasn’t an addict
» Star, 42, hails » Heaton tells all ‘strong’ husband on Lucy TV show
MICHELLE Heaton has told how quitting the booze has put the romance back into her marriage.
The 42-year-old singer marked six months of sobriety this week and said her recovery journey has rebooted her passionate side.
Mum-of-two Michelle, who is married to Irish businessman Hugh Hanley, confessed she turned her back on intimacy at the height of her addiction.
She told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “I believe it’s brought the love back, that’s the easiest way of saying it.
“There is a lot more kissing and a lot more hugging and I love that.
“I pushed him away [in addiction]... I knew I was doing something that was so awful, but I couldn’t stop.
“It would have been easier if he’d left me, but thank God he didn’t.
“You push people away when you’re in that madness because you think you’re not worthy.
“It takes a strong person like my husband to stay. He’s gorgeous, no one comes close.
“He just wanted his wife back, the woman he married on the beach who wasn’t an addict.
“I might miss the odd glass of wine, but I definitely don’t miss what I became.”
Adoring Hugh never left his wife’s side during her weekend of filming for Living With Lucy, which airs tomorrow at 9pm.
Earlier this year, Michelle bravely revealed she had been just days from death after a three-year cocaine and booze binge.
Just hours after leaving rehab the TV personality opened up about her battle with addiction and how an intervention from showbiz pals saved her life.
Hubby Hugh was left to raise nine-year-old daughter Faith and son AJ, seven, as she battled her demons during a four-week stint at The Priory.
Michelle shot to fame on ITV’S Popstars in 2000, losing out on a place in the band Hearsay but forming Liberty X with the other runners-up a year later.
Speaking with a candour she’s become known and respected for she admitted she found it “emotionally draining” to discuss her biggest hopes and fears with Lucy. But
Michelle added: “It was cathartic. I find it’s OK to have emotion, I actually love to cry and I do that a lot. “I think most of my tears with Lucy were happy tears... realising how far I’ve come. “We were both emotionally drained because we’re women, and I know her so well. “It was really good for her I thought. She was having a sober month herself. “We had some really nice conversations off camera as well as on camera. “The only thing in that TV show that was set up was that we had lights so people could see us.”
On the show Hugh, who has never touched alcohol, tells of his “frustration and anger” when Michelle refused to quit booze after doctors warned her she was at death’s door.
He revealed: “You’d find them everywhere, bottles of water in the fridge, you’d take them out, they’d be vodka. They’d be hidden all over the house.
“Before she went into Priory she had a fit in bed, I’m talking white stuff coming out of her mouth, eyes rolling back in her head, she was completely out of it. I was about to ring an ambulance and she came back. It was weird and scary – our saving grace was the kids saw none of that.”
Recalling the same incident Michelle told us: “I don’t, shamefully, remember fully, that would have been in what is called blackout.
“Those last two months were really not good, I was very very ill – Hugh was afraid he was going to wake up with me dead.”
Michelle’s downward spiral began in 2012 when she discovered she was a carrier of the mutated BRCA2 gene, significantly increasing her risk of breast and ovarian cancer. She underwent a mastectomy in 2012 and a hysterectomy two years later to beat the odds of developing cancer.
But early menopause left her depressed and she turned to drink and drugs.
Now six months sober, she said: “I’ve completed the 12 steps, I’m a sponsor for
You’d find water in the fridge and it’d be vodka, they were hidden all over the house HUGH HANLEY LIVING WITH LUCY, VIRGIN MEDIA ONE
somebody. I’ve learned so much and I’ve only just begun.
“Of course there is a huge amount of guilt, pain, and shame.
“Whatever wrongs... I can only amend today. I can’t change what I did.”
Michelle still performs with her female Liberty X bandmates and is in touch with Pop Idol runner-up Gareth Gates.
Having overcome an earlier addiction to diet pills and speed she says she’s blown away by the “natural high” she gets from performing on stage.
And after the reaction to her Instagram before and after booze pictures, she admits she is grateful for the way her body has healed itself.
Michelle revealed: “Physically, I didn’t know the extent of the damage until I went into The Priory and had the tests.
“I didn’t look at myself in the mirror... I was grey, I had veins popping through, translucent skin.
“But it’s amazing how the body can repair and my liver is now 100% normal, although my pancreas doesn’t work.
“The body is a miraculous thing, you give it a chance and it will grow and heal.
“I do yoga, pilates, mindfulness, a lot of gratitude, love going for my runs, and walks with my dog in the woods.
“My body today is as fit and healthy as it can be for 42 with a bad back.”
Living With Lucy is on Virgin Media One tomorrow at 9pm.