Nadia Sawalha has bravely spoken out about her past relationship with alcohol, revealing that had she not fallen pregnant, both she and her husband "probably would have died". The Loose Women star admitted that she was "emotionally and physically unwell" when she first met husband Mark Adderley, and "hadn't been dealing with grief" following the death of her first husband Justin Mildwater, who had taken his own life in 1997. "There was a lot of drink and a lot of late nights," Nadia, 54, said. The couple fell pregnant in 2002 with daughter Maddie - now 16 - and later welcomed their second daughter, Kiki, 11.
Nadia Sawalha and husband Mark have been married since June 2002
Nadia made the comments while speaking to Mark on their podcast, 'How To Stay Married (So Far)'. "Getting together with you and getting pregnant made me go, 'Jesus Christ, ok, all that's gone before has to stop'," she expressed. "I was such a different person since get pregnant with Maddie. Because it was like, 'I've got this child and I've got to look after her', and I immediately stopped drinking... And I was pregnant and you were still drinking, and I think that was probably the beginning of us saving our lives. If I hadn't got pregnant, we probably would have died. We probably would have gone crazy on the alcohol," she concluded.
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Mark, who has been open about his addiction to alcohol and is now tee-total, added: "Our drinking would have rumbled on to all sorts of self-destruction of the relationship, and ... I certainly would have died. Because you had to stop [drinking] because of the pregnancy, the fog was removed and you could just see me for what I was."
The couple are proud parents to two daughters, Maddie and Kiki
Nadia and Mark, who married in June 2002, also run their own YouTube channel, Nadia Sawalha and Family, and often talk about their relationship and family life, as well as discussing how they are raising their children – who are both home schooled. Mark has two older daughters from previous relationships, and Nadia sometimes speaks about her experiences being a stepmum, too.
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Earlier this month, the couple candidly opened up about the pressures Nadia's fame put on their relationship, with TV producer Mark admitting he found it hard to show public displays of affection to his wife. He said: "I think, I feel there have been very different pressures on us that have made it difficult for us to indulge in any public displays of affection, conscious or unconscious. One of them is your profile and the fact that you are off the telly. That element and that hue to our relationship does and did make PDA a bit difficult. I mean the last time we did kiss in the street the Daily Mail photographed us. That puts an odd pressure on how we are in public."