"I had several incidents I'm not proud of": Richard Reid shares his struggle with alcoholism on I'm A Celebrity.

In the past seven years, Richard Reid hasn’t touched a drop of alcohol.

After a years-long struggle with alcohol including a series of destructive benders and a brief stint in hospital, the entertainment reporter gave up alcohol once and for all.

Speaking to Love Island star and fellow camper Justin Lacko on I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here last night, the journalist opened up about the moment he knew he had to change his habits around alcohol.

“I look back at when I drank… I would drink to celebrate, I would drink when I was depressed, I would drink when I was tired,” Richard said.

“I had several incidents back-to-back that I am not proud of.”

The reporter said that there was one particularly bad incident which occurred the morning after the Logies, when he was scheduled to have a business meeting.

 

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“I was really hung over and I wanted to take a quick nap, because I had a business meeting,” he said.

“I took a sleeping pill, but I didn’t go to sleep, I fell into a trance, and then raided the mini bar, was like blacked out… I went to the business meeting. Grabbed a journalist’s breasts, was all over Napoleon Perdis and then they tell me I tried to urinate on a pot plant.”

Following the incident, Richard had absolutely no recollection of his behaviour.

But despite assuming his actions at the meeting would affect the contract he was there to discuss, the contract was surprisingly upheld anyway.

“I had to write that column every week for a year, and every time I had to do it, I was reminded of the humiliation that I felt,” he said.

“I was just so ashamed because I’m not like that.”

It was this shame and embarrassment that ultimately led the reporter to give up alcohol altogether.

Although remaining sober for the past seven years hasn’t been easy, Richard explained that it’s been the best thing for him.

“It’s been really hard, it’s really hard when people say ‘You’re not fun’. I’m fun. I’m just not drunk,” he said.

“I’ve kept my career, I’m trying to keep my looks, you know. It just works for me.”