Richard Bacon admits ongoing alcohol addiction puts him in 'danger'

Richard Bacon has opened up about his ongoing addiction to alcohol and how his drinking has made him fear he could destroy his marriage.

The former Blue Peter presenter - famously sacked from the CBBC show in 1998 after he admitted taking cocaine - discussed his battle with drink and drugs on BBC Radio 5 Live's Hooked podcast and admitted his way of managing addiction was “delusional”.

Bacon, 43, said: “I’ve always been bad at learning from mistakes, I’ve been through periods where it’s been dangerous and I’ve gone missing for a night. That’s certainly not the place I’m in now, but I have come close to losing everything again and pushing things too far with my wife.

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“That’s one of the reasons I went to AA [Alcoholics Anonymous] for a period. When you’re an addict you end up lying and the lies find you out.”

Bacon married Rebecca McFarlane in 2008 and they have two children, Arthur and Ivy.

The TV presenter said of his relationship: “We’ve done therapy together and we’ve had conversations where I thought, ‘Oh God is my whole marriage going to end?!’”

He went on: "She would like me to do AA all the time, and I just don't.

"But I have said I will spend more time with our therapist examining my relationship to drink.

"We're in a good place at the moment but once you have accepted you're an addict to some degree the danger is always there, isn't it?"

Bacon - who last year fell ill during a flight from Los Angeles to London and was put in an induced coma as doctors fought to save his life - admitted he still drank alcohol.

The Good Morning Britain presenter said: “I don’t drink most of the time and I do have the odd drink here and there. I try to manage it.

“It is probably delusional to think that that is sustainable.”

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Bacon revealed: "I am almost at my most vulnerable when things are great. I don't use [alcohol] to numb pain.

"If I am excited or happy about something I am more likely to go too far."

And he confessed: "When I've been through periods of my life where I have been using cocaine, it's only [after] two or three drinks where I quite fancy that as well."