Bryony Gordon on her memoir Glorious Rock Bottom and supporting Prince Harry

Virgin Radio

20 May 2021, 10:20

The Sunday Times best seller, columnist and podcaster joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about her honest memoir Glorious Rock Bottom, being pals with Prince Harry and her connection with Joe Biden's son, Hunter and his addiction.

She told Chris about lockdown: “For someone with a history of mental health issues - I always say that mental health issues work by isolating you - and when this all happened I thought oh great, my diary is empty, I can be alone but I realised that that bit of my brain was my alcoholism and depression.

“I've been preparing for the end of the world since I was about nine so I was like, oh this is okay, I've been having lockdowns in my own head since I was a child."

On her memoir explaining, she said: “I thought I was the worst woman in the world and mum who was an alcoholic and an addict.

“The more I talk about my alcoholism and all the things that I thought made me really weird, the more I realise how normal I am and how normal this stuff is...

“Four years ago if you told me that I could live life without a drink, I wouldn't have believed it and the fact that I haven't had a drink for coming up for four years now and I do feel liberated.

“The things I used to do when I was in active alcoholism was so out of kilter with who I was as a person... it's said it's a disease of shame, like most mental illnesses are and I absolutely think addiction is a mental illness.

"It works by isolating you, by telling you you're a freak and that you're alone and no one's going to understand what you're going through... I was just an ill person who sometimes did bad things because of that illness.

“There are a lot of us who do find ourselves in really tricky situations with alcohol and drugs… and I think we just need to talk more about this stuff and be more open about how it affects. 

"Alcoholism and addiction are seen as a moral failure; you're just a human with a brain, and brains sometimes misfire.

“I always say it's like an Oscar winning actor, so it's a depressant that masquerades remarkably well as a relaxant..."

On scoring drugs with Hunter Biden years ago, she said: "What I learned is that it doesn't really matter who you are, these things affect all of us.

“Regardless of the fact his father is the President, his story is powerful and tragic enough without it. He survived when he was two a car crash that killed his mother and sister but it is a very human story of trauma and the effects that has on people.

"Trauma doesn't have to be that sort of awful tragedy that he experienced, we all experience it in some way. Prince Harry's been talking a lot about it and everyone's got a story, it doesn't matter who they are and it's such a privilege to be able to listen to them."

Talking about her podcast with Harry, she said: “That was four years ago and that was the first time he’d spoken openly about the terrible effects on his mental health of ignoring the death of his mother, burying it and not dealing with it.

“It's nice to see him continue to do that work. I still speak to them quite often and I love what he's doing. I love that he's talking about stuff. Anyone who's done any therapy at all will recognise what he's talking about and I don't think it comes from a place of negativity or hatred and I think he's in a really good place.”

Glorious Rock Bottom is out now in paperback, ebook and audiobook.