Best-selling novelist Ann Leary has opened up about her battle with alcohol and admitted: ‘I’m definitely an alcoholic’.
Mrs Leary said she used to down a bottle and a half of wine on her own during the daytime whilst her husband, the actor Denis Leary, was away working and her two children were out.
She suffered blackouts and and was ‘always a mess’ but turned to alcohol as her savior to overcome shyness.
Best-selling author Ann Leary has admitted in an interview that she is an alcoholic - although has not touched a drink for six years
Mrs Leary, 50, has now quit drinking and been sober for six years yet said she still misses boozing as was it was ‘something I did really well’.
She has in recent years begun to emerge from her husband’s shadow and has written non-fiction and fiction works.
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Mrs Leary has also penned dozens of magazine articles and hosts a radio show on NPR.
Her new novel, The Good House, which reached the New York Times bestseller list, is about a businesswoman who has a drinking problem and is told by her daughter to check into rehab.
Actor Denis Leary and wife Ann Lembeck - they couple have been married for almost 30-years
Denis and Ann Leary with daughter Devin, and son Jack 12-years ago. Both their children have grown up and left the Connecticut family home
Mrs Leary, a keen equestrian rider, said: ‘Maybe I write well about drinking because I love to drink. I’m definitely an alcoholic.
‘I’d come up and polish my saddle and put on a movie and have a bottle, bottle and half of wine, sometimes more.
Ann Leary has stepped out from her husband's shadow in recent years - producing novels such as 'The Good House' which has appeared on the New York Times best-seller list
‘It was heaven’.
The dark side of her boozing was that she would do things that would anger her family - and the next day she could not remember them,
Mrs Leary said: ‘I was always a mess.
‘I was the kind of drinker who everyone would be mad at the next day. I didn’t know where I was or what I was doing. So when I decided to quit, it wasn’t like people said, ‘Oh, no, you don’t need to do that.’ Everyone was like, good idea.’
Mrs Leary said that she drank because it made her feel ‘funnier and smarter’ and that it ‘gave me the confidence to be able to walk into a room’.
And even though she has been sober for six years, she still craves the bottle.
She said: ‘I love it. If it weren’t for the blackouts, I’d probably still be drinking today.’
In the interview with the New York Times Mrs Leary was often self-effacing and said that until now people only knew her because of who she is married to.
She said: ‘I know some people wouldn’t take this novel seriously - I’m a celebrity wife, for God’s sake.
‘I wouldn’t want to read the novel of a celebrity wife.’
Mrs Leary and her husband live in Connecticut and have recently had to also come to terms with their two grown up children leaving home.
She thought that it would bring back her depression but instead it has given her a new lease of life.
A keen equestrian, Ann Leary spoke in the interview about how if it was not for the blackouts she she suffered she would still be drinking
With typical good humor, Mrs Leary said: ‘Denis and I realized how exhausting it was, all those years of trying to set a good example.
‘As soon as they were out of the house, we were like, ‘Let’s walk around in our underwear! Let’s watch TV while we eat!’
Mr Leary who is the star of the long running TV show Rescue Me, has his own vices too and is known for his chain smoking that he has continued despite being 55 years of age.
He and his wife have been married since 1989 when they met at Emerson College when he was teaching a graduate course in comedy writing and she was one of the students.