Wayne Lineker Celebrates Seven Months Sobriety After Rehab

He was the self-styled King of Ibiza, self-made and surrounded by bikini-clad women, often half his age, owner of the Balearic party island's best known and arguably most lucrative beach club. 

On paper he had it all, but Wayne Lineker says the carefree party lifestyle that began when he opened his notorious O Beach in 2012 led to a crippling  dependency - and genuine concerns that he could be drinking himself to death. 

'I drank every day since Ocean [his beach club] opened 13 years ago,' he told The Times. 'I had seven drinks a day in the winter and 16 drinks a day in the summer, but that was Spanish measures, so it’s triple, quadruple.

'They wanted to see you having a good time and that’s what I did. I worked out that I had 52,000 drinks in that 13-year period.' 

Now seven months sober, Lineker, 63, the younger brother of former England striker and Match Of The Day host Gary, revealed he would order his first drink at a local bar, at a time when most people were preparing breakfast.

That would be a bracing vodka and Red Bull, followed by multiple glasses of red wine before he arrived at O Beach, located on Ibiza's raucous west coast, at 4:00pm - but the night would still be young. 

'I’d have the little demon on my shoulder saying, "Right, you need to order your drugs now,"' he recalled, admitting the intoxicating combination of alcohol and cocaine would inevitably deprive him of sleep.

The penny started to drop after a notorious video emerged of Lineker looking wasted in the O Beach DJ booth. When it went viral, his dismayed partners demanded a meeting amid fears that he was 'risking the business.' 

But worse would follow, with Lineker's late night drug and alcohol binges resulting in an emotional confrontation with his son Freddie, 21, a successful DJ.   

'He had an early-morning flight out to Zante for a set,' he recalled. 'He could hear me awake, moving around, unable to sleep at 5:00am and he came into my room and gave me a cuddle. 

'He was crying his eyes out and just said, "Dad, I don’t want you to go." I could see that what I was doing to myself, I was also doing to my family.' 

It was the latest in a series of wake-up calls that led to his arrival at Champneys hotel in Tring, where he weaned himself off alcohol over a five day period before checking into Surrey rehab Priory Life Works House. 

And the early days of his sobriety were not without challenges, with the club-owner's daughter Tia scheduled to her marry long-term partner in Mallorca just four weeks into his six-week treatment programme. 

Viewed as a good test by his therapists, Lineker flew to the Spanish island, walked his daughter down the aisle and attended the ensuing reception, during which he was reunited with his older brother after a lengthy estrangement.

'That was the best moment of my sobriety,' he recalled of the day, revealing he and Gary 'were just like the brothers we always were' after more than 15 years of almost no communication. 

Lineker is now seven months sober, but his abstinence coincided with a seven week stay in hospital after he contracted two severe attacks of . 

The O Beach Ibiza founder revealed he began to feel unwell on a flight to the UK from after visiting his daughter, Tia. 

He told The Mirror: 'After three days at home, I had another really big attack - I was in a severe state. The doctor told my son I was in big danger and my blood pressure was ridiculously low. 

'But they said, "We're just going to tell your dad he's ok. We'll get an ambulance."' 

He added" 'There were two times I nearly passed away - it was a real eye opener for me. I became worried about my life. Am I going to make it? 

'I lost so much weight, I lost 11 kilograms of weight because I was lying in bed for seven weeks.'