Spencer: City bank initiation rite that tipped me into alcohol battle
SPENCER Matthews has revealed how he slid into alcoholism at the start of his City career when he took part in an initiation that involved downing six cans of Stella.
The former Made In Chelsea star, who has now been sober for six years, said working as a banker led to unhealthy habits.
The 35-year- old was a broker at the company ICAP for several years before leaving to pursue his role on the reality TV show. He stopped drinking in 2018 to save his marriage to model Vogue Williams and now owns a non-alcoholic spirits company called CleanCo.
Speaking to the Mail’s Everything I Know About Me podcast about his first day as a broker, the fatherof-three said: ‘We were forced, well not forced, to have a kind of eat-off and drink-off in this room where the entire office were invited to participate in betting on who would win. ‘The challenge was four Big Macs, a six-pack of Stella, and four large chocolate muffins. And it was the first person to finish.
‘Every single day we’d go out and drink excessive pints of Guinness. It’s certainly where the brunt of alcoholism probably came in.
‘Because you know, you’re entertaining clients late into the night, you’re back at work the following day, that first drink creeps up earlier and earlier, until all of a sudden you’re p*****, a lot of the time. He added: ‘I was out five nights a week... I gained a huge amount of weight, you don’t even notice, it just creeps up on you.
‘I was grey in colour, huge, puffy eyes, exhausted all of the time. And any kind of natural ambition and drive gets crushed by that desire to drink all of the time.’
Matthews said his issues were exacerbated by his role on the E4 show Made In Chelsea, where he was notorious for booze-fuelled partying and relationship drama. He joined in series one in 2011 and quit after ten series, in 2015.
‘I did the whole first series of Made In Chelsea while still being at ICAP,’ the reality star said.
‘I often had to entertain clients until 12am at the very minimum, a lot of them wanted to go out until 5am, and then I had to go straight into work. It became impossible to juggle the two. So I said to my boss, can I go and pursue this TV show? I went off and the rest is history.’
Matthews has spoken about his recovery from alcoholism several times in recent years. Posting on Instagram in 2019, he wrote: ‘Sobriety is a lifestyle choice I made a few months before becoming a dad.
‘Drinking lead me to make poor decisions and achieving my full potential was slipping away.’
‘I was out five nights a week’