Susannah Constantine says she is ‘much more present’ following seven years of sobriety

Susannah Constantine has said she feels ‘much more present’ since going sober seven years ago and is not tempted by the half-full bottles of wine scattered across her home.

Ahead of her new memoir launch, Ready For Absolutely Nothing, the 60-year-old TV fashion ‘guru’ revealed that years of alcoholism had an impact on her family.

Speaking to Radio Times, What Not To Wear host Susannah said it has been ‘amazing for me’ to be alcohol free for seven years, not including the two relapses she has had inbetween.

‘I see the world now’: Susannah Constantine says she feels ‘much more present’ since going sober seven years ago and isn’t tempted by the half-full bottles of wine around her home (pictured in September)

She said: ‘I see the world now. I see the little things. I’m much more efficient, more present and my life is completely different.

‘Not in how I live but how I perceive my life, how I see what’s around me and the gratitude I have for even the tiny things.’

The publication noted that there was a ‘plethora’ of half-full bottles of wine and spirits spread around her home, a 127-acre property in rural West Sussex, which she shares with husband Sten Bertelsten, 58, and three children, Joe, 23, Esme, 21, and  Cece, 18.

But she ‘insists’ that she’s ‘no longer at risk of temptation because the rewards of sobriety are too precious to lose’.

Susannah openly revealed that she also takes anti-anxiety medication, but with being alcohol-free, triggers are less likely to push her stresses into anxiety.

She admitted that her triggers could be ‘anything from being caught out telling a little white lie’ or ‘helping her kids through their problems’: ‘I’m very codependent with their emotions’, she said.

Style gurus: Ahead of her new memoir launch, Ready For Absolutely Nothing, the 60-year-old TV fashion ‘guru’ (pictured with Trinny Woodall in 2002) opened up about her past

Susannah found fame with fellow fashionista Trinny Woodall, 58, on the hit BBC fashion makeover show What Not To Wear.

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After first airing in 2001, the pair gained notoriety for their straight-to-the-point advice and ‘trademark boob-grabbing’, making them ruthless in comparison to other slices of fashion advice. 

It was only in September that Susannah opened up about the ‘humiliating moment’ that forced her to ‘admit’ she was an alcoholic. 

During an appearance on Lorraine, the 60-year-old detailed hitting rock bottom when she blacked out and wet herself on a family holiday in 2013. 

She would drink a bottle and a half of wine every night and admitted alcohol had a ‘control’ over her while she attempted to hide her drinking from husband Sten Bertelsen and their children Cece, 18, Esme, 21, and Joe, 23. 

She explained: ‘Anyone who is suffering from alcoholism will identify with this, it had been building up to the point where I didn’t have control over alcohol, it had control over me.’ 

Recalling the moment she decided to get help, she continued: ‘We were in Cornwall and I wasn’t drinking much more than anyone else but I think when you drink consistently and daily, your body becomes like a saturated sponge and it doesn’t take much to tip you over the edge.

‘So I blacked out, I fell over, I broke two transverse processes in my back and I wet myself, and you can’t get anything more humiliating than that. And my children witnessed this and my husband and brother-in-law took me up to bed.’

Deception: She previously attempted to hide her drinking from husband Sten Bertelsen and their children Cece, 18, Esme, 21, and Joe, 23 (pictured in 2020)

She continued: ‘I don’t know how I had the courage, but the next day I just got everyone round the table and I said, “look I need help. I’ve been lying to you, I keep saying I’m not drinking, I’m drinking far more than any of you know and I need to do something about it”.

‘And then I asked them all, “how has this made you feel?” And they all told me and I knew that was the point I had to stop and had to start regaining the trust of my family because I’d been lying.’

Susannah previously admitted that she found her attempts to keep her alcoholism hidden ‘all-consuming and exhausting.’ 

The TV presenter, whose mother was also an alcoholic, first revealed she has a drinking problem in 2020, and told how she has been in recovery for seven years.

• If you have been affected by this article please contact the AA helpline free on 0800 917 7650 to be put in touch with someone locally. 

Best of friends: After first airing in 2001, Susannah and Trinny (pictured recently) gained notoriety for their straight-to-the-point advice and ‘trademark boob-grabbing’