Duncan James has opened up about Lee Ryan’s battle with alcoholism and confessed the star often wears a “mask” to hide his personal issues from his loyal legion of fans.
In the past, Lee has candidly spoken out about his battle with addiction after finding himself hitting the headlines for his various drunken stints over the years.
The Celebs Go Dating star, 39, recently revealed in 2019 how he now allows himself to have one glass but “has to be sensible” with alcohol, and has vowed never to touch whiskey again.
READ MORE: Blue star Lee Ryan arrested after ‘going berserk on plane’ following ‘alcohol bust up’
But his fellow bandmate Duncan has explained how the dad-of-two used to use alcohol as a way to “numb the pain” when dealing with personal issues, and that over the years his “mask” has started to “crack.”
(Image: Dave Benett/Getty Images)
In an exclusive interview with Daily Star, the Celebrity Gogglebox star, 44, has revealed the impact that being in the public eye has had on him since the group rose to stardom in 2001.
He explained: “I think being in the public eye, it’s difficult because if you’re going through some personal issue and it’s really getting to you – you can’t really hide from it.
“When you’re working in this industry and you’re going on a TV show or whatever and you’re deal with that, a lot of the time you’re just trying to put on a brave face.”
(Image: David Fisher/REX/Shutterstock)
The star went on to reveal that sometimes his calm and collected nature slips when things in his life come to a head, which some people see as the singer going “crazy.”
He added: “And sometimes that mask that you’re putting on cracks and then you might say something crazy or some something [crazy] and people are like, ‘What’s going on with him? He’s crazy or he’s lost the plot’.
“And I think that was happening a lot with Lee, bless him.”
(Image: Dave J Hogan/Getty Images)
The singer said what it was like living with his bandmate when he found him searching through his cupboards for booze during the peak of his addiction back in mid-noughties.
Duncan went on: “We were living together at the time and he was in a very toxic relationship at the time and he was just trying to deal with everything and I guess sometimes people deal with things in different ways.
(Image: Instagram)
“And for him, I guess it was more the wanting to numb the pain kind of job, and it got to the point where I said, ‘Lee, you’ve got to get help. This is not the right way to deal with these problems. You’ve got to get help’.
“And I literally took him to rehab and he’s very grateful that I did that because he was in a really dark place and he didn’t know how to deal with it.”
(Image: Dave J Hogan/Getty Images)
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If you or somebody you know has been affected by this story, contact Alcoholics Anonymous for free support on 0800 9177 650 or email help@aamail.org
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
