Ruth Jones, the star of ‘Gavin and Stacey’, explained that an ‘unhappy’ period of time while filming the popular series prompted her to make a major health change.
The actress recounted her journey of abstaining from drink throughout her 40s on the Bee Sober podcast. Ruth, now 58, reflected: “I didn’t drink pretty much for that whole decade of my 40s.
“I had Christmas. We filmed Gavin and Stacey, and for various reasons – the whole thing was great filming it – but there were a couple of things that went on during it that made me really unhappy.
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“It was sort of party-ish, everyone was socialising. We got to Christmas and it was that inbetween time, the day after Boxing Day.
“You’re eating up leftovers, and you’re just slobbing around aren’t you. You’re eating loads of chocolate. It doesn’t matter if you start drinking at lunchtime.”
Expressing her disillusionment with drinking, Ruth continued: “I just thought: ‘What am I doing.’ I’d have a few glasses of red wine and I thought: ‘I’m just not enjoying this at all.
“I don’t like the taste of it, it’s not even giving me a buzz.'”
Ruth and co-star James Corden also co-wrote the Gavin and Stacey finale
(Image: BBC/Fulwell 73 UK Limited/Tom Jackson)
Ruth and co-creator and co-star James Corden concluded their roles as Nessa and Smithy during the Christmas special finale drew in an audience of 12.5 million, reports Wales Online.
Ruth candidly discussed the moment that ignited her determination to quit alcohol and spoke out against the ‘stigma’ faced by those who make the same choice. She said: “It must have been the 29th of December and I said: ‘That’s it, I’m going to stop.’
“Now you’ve got such a proliferation of podcasts and communities, books, counselling, coaching, so much.
“The stigma with alcohol is so great. If you said ‘I don’t eat sugar’ or ‘I don’t eat meat,’ people just accept it. People don’t react badly to it. People don’t go ‘why’.
“It’s still difficult to sometimes talk openly to decide to stop drinking alcohol. Especially being in the public eye.”
“Someone could listen to this podcast and go: ‘Ruth Jones had a problem with alcohol.’ Probably no more of a problem than the population of Britain.”