Susanna Reid has admitted ‘hangxiety’ and skin concerns drove her to become ‘alcohol free.’
The presenter, 53, discussed the health benefits she has seen since giving up booze as she spoke to Lorraine Kelly on her morning show on Thursday.
Susanna, who gave up drinking in 2018, added that while she still ‘enjoys a few bubbles’ on very special occasions, she is ‘99.9 per cent alcohol free.’
As she joined Lorraine in the studio, the host said: ‘You are glowing.’
‘Thank you, Lots of people are doing dry Jan and you need a proper motivation to stick to it. People think why not, you need a why to do it,’ Susanna began.
Susanna Reid, 53, has admitted ‘hangxiety’ and skin concerns drove her to become ‘alcohol free’ (pictured this week on Good Morning Britain)
The presenter, who gave up drinking in 2018, added that while she still ‘enjoys a few bubbles’ on very special occasions, she is ‘99.9 per cent alcohol free’
She continued: ‘My why was I kept getting breakouts on my skin and my doctor said its because alcohol dilates your blood vessels and you get a blood rush to the skin. I was prone to spots, break outs, rosacea. I thought I don’t just want one.
‘When you’re getting up so early in the morning you really need a clear head. I just found even if I had a drink at the weekend it was taking longer to flush it through my body and I just didn’t like that feeling of hangxiety. That slightly tense feeling.
‘It had quite a dramatic effect on my weight and I lost quite a lot. Of course, you then substitute other things in! White wine is known as liquid cake, it’s just so many calories.’
‘I just think do it for a month and see the effects it has on your skin and health’
‘If someone is celebrating I will still raise a glass, at Christmas I will still have bubbles. 99.9% of the time I am alcohol free.’
Susanna revealed to the Mail in 2019 that she no longer felt ‘hangxiety’ and explained what that meant.
‘It was a sort of fizzing feeling, when you can’t find peace, your body is just so agitated,’ she said.
‘I never drank when I was working, but, on nights off, I’d have a couple of glasses of wine. And Piers and I would have these big nights out at the Groucho Club in Soho, which were wonderful.’
She explained: ‘My why was I kept getting breakouts on my skin and my doctor said its because alcohol dilates your blood vessels and you get a blood rush to the skin’
Susanna added: ‘I just didn’t like that feeling of hangxiety. That slightly tense feeling’
She continued: ‘But I haven’t done one of those since I stopped drinking. Basically, I’m a lot less fun now – as Piers tells me all the time.’
Susanna also opened up about the effect being sober had on her love life.
She said: ‘Someone – he’ll be anonymous – and I were setting up arrangements for a date.
‘I thought it might be good manners to mention the fact I don’t drink, because most people do like to drink on a date.
‘And, just like that, he stopped making arrangements,’ she said. ‘It just ceased to be. A lot of people just think you’ll be no fun on a night out.’
‘I don’t care,’ she added. ‘I’m just grateful I don’t have to worry about waking up with a sore head.’
Susanna celebrated 100 days of sobriety in December 2018, and seven months in April 2019, but has not publicly marked any milestones since.
Speaking after the seven month mark, Susanna admitted: ‘I haven’t been entirely dry…there are times you fall back into it.’
In 2020, she said: ‘It’s a bit like the end of a relationship when you’re not quite ready to say it’s really over.’
Susanna has lost two stone since she cut out alcohol.
While Susanna has given up alcohol for good, the presenter revealed last month she had a health scare with doctors giving her a warning about her caffeine consumption.
Susanna admitted to drinking a staggering eight coffees a day to cope with the early 3.45am Good Morning Britain starts.
‘Losing my voice earlier this year was a bit of a scare. Everyone gets a bit croaky from time to time, but I could not get any noise out of my vocal cords and that’s never happened before,’ she said in the February issue of woman&home.
‘I went very quickly to see a specialist, who stuck a camera down my throat, for which I needed a nurse to hold my hand because I found it quite intrusive.’
Susanna revealed to the Mail in 2019 that she no longer felt ‘hangxiety’ and explained what that meant
‘The specialist said maybe I had a virus that I didn’t realise I had. Unless we’re properly ill, we all carry on working, don’t we?
‘I’m not doing anything to boost my immunity, and I should be. The doctor was quite surprised that I don’t drink more water and that I drink quite a lot of coffee, so I have tried to cut down a bit.
‘One morning we worked out that I had eight coffees. But I don’t drink the whole cup – I have a few sips.’
Susanna said she has cut down on her caffeine intake by interspersing drinks with ginger tea.
