‘It wasn’t a happy use of alcohol’

Campaigner, TV presenter and author Katie Piper has lifted the lid on a dark chapter in her life, during which she developed an unhealthy relationship with alcohol.

Unsettled after he noticed some troubling patterns in her behaviour, her husband Richard Sutton gave her the encouragement she needed to seek help.

Piper recently likened society’s conception of getting old to grieving the death of a loved one. She would rather frame ageing as a “magic key”.

She spent a lot of time thinking she should have taken revenge on her ex, who was responsible for the acid attack carried out on her on that fateful day.

Thoughts such as these may have played a role in the development of unhealthy drinking habits, as she explained in a new interview…

Katie Piper developed an unhealthy relationship with alcohol, which she changed with therapeutic help (Credit: Cover Images)

Katie Piper on ‘destructive’ drinking habits

Before the acid attack in 2008, Katie Piper had begun a career as a digital TV presenter, working predominantly in web-TV and on small digital television channels. She also worked as a model.

But neither of these two career paths had much time to develop before the incident.

A consequence of her decision to give up her right to anonymity, in 2009, and become a campaigner for the rights of burns victims, is that she is now a household name.

In 2022, she launched Katie Piper’s Breakfast Show, and she currently presents Katie Piper’s Weekend Escape.

People can find it difficult to adjust to success and fame at the best of times. Add trauma-induced flashbacks into the mix, and you can see how one might slip into unhealthy habits.

“I [attended] a lot of events where I’d drink to fit in and not feel nervous or shy. When things went well, like when we got good viewing figures, I’d receive a bottle of champagne,” she recalled, in a new interview with Woman and Home magazine.

She was quite lonely, she revealed. And, since she lived on her own, she’d drink the bottle by herself.

“I also had a lot of problems with sleeping because of flashbacks, so I’d drink on the sofa, pass out, wake up fully clothed and think, [bleep!] I’m supposed to be at a studio for 8am!”

She admits she ‘spent a lot of time’ thinking she should’ve killed acid attacker (Credit: Cover Images)

How husband Rich Sutton encouraged her to seek help

Katie admits now that would become argumentative and confrontational. One day, her husband Rich told her straight that he wanted her to get help.

“Sometimes I’d make an argument or become confrontational and, one day, Rich said: ‘I want you to get help with this to change it,’” Katie revealed.

Up until that point, she had only reckoned with it subconsciously. But she hadn’t heard it articulated until then. With Rich’s encouragement, Katie sought help at a daytime addiction clinic in West London, where she attended counselling therapy focused on quitting harmful habits.

Katie insisted “it wasn’t alcoholism,”. But it wasn’t a “happy use” of alcohol, either, she said, admitting to using alcohol “in a destructive way”.

The presenter also revealed she’s had couples therapy with her husband, admitting “it’s like a relationship MOT and it helps because it validates what you’re going through”.