Denise Welch has opened up about the "terrible guilt" she feels about her mother dying before she was able to see the Loose Women presenter sober.
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Denise's mother, Ann, sadly passed away in 2012 following a cancer diagnosis which was around the time that the actress gave up drinking after a long battle with alcohol addiction.
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During an appearance on ITV's Loose Women on Thursday, Denise admitted to her fellow panellists Kaye Adams, Linda Robson and Carol McGiffin that she felt regretful about her mother's death.
"I have terrible guilt about my mum dying and not seeing my life post alcohol," she said. "I've had to do a lot of work on myself to overcome the shame and the guilt that my drinking and drug-taking [has caused], which there was a reason [for]. I was self-medicating a mental illness but it doesn't excuse it. What I put my family through, I have a lot of guilt about that."
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The Waterloo Road actress went on to say that while her family have forgiven her, she still feels guilty about that time of her life. "I am completely forgiven and they don't put that on me but I can't help feeling that," she said. "I wish I could go back sometimes and redo parts of Matthew's childhood, Louis less so because I've been sober for a lot of his life. It's very easy to say, 'Don't have regrets,' but you can't help having them."
The actress opened up on Loose Women
She added: "I would love to be guilt-free about many things but I feel guilty about stupid things and I have worked on that."
Louise gave up drinking for good after a "disastrous" night out in 2012. Describing the evening on Loose Women earlier this month, Denise recalled how she'd become intoxicated after performing in a play called Steel Magnolias.
"I woke up the next day having no recollection of the evening. I'd broken things in the flat, it was a disaster," she said. I stopped that night and that was ten years ago. I haven't touched a sherry trifle since."
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