Christine McGuinness has revealed the only things she really wanted for her children were 'hot water and a nice house'.
The Real Full Monty star, 33, is proud mum to twins Leo and Penelope, eight, and five-year-old Felicity, who all have autism.
Christine talked about her kids while opening up about her own childhood growing up with a heroin addict father.
Speaking on mum-of-five Sophie Ellis-Bextor's Spinning Plates podcast, the wife of Paddy McGuinness said: "We didn't have it easy growing up, my dad is a heroin addict, he started heroin before I was born.
"My mum left and raised me and my brother and sister on her own."
Speaking about her own children she said: "I just wanted them to have hot water and a nice house, nothing to the extent that of what I've got, this is beyond my wildest dreams."
Paying tribute to her mum, Christine said she was an inspiration explaining that: "She gave me the best thing she could without money, because she showed me what a strong independent woman is.'"
The former Miss Liverpool reflects in her book Christine McGuinness: A Beautiful Nightmare on the drug use she witnessed as a youngster in her family home.
Christine says her dad Johnny chose drugs over being a father.
Opening up about her dad being a drug addict for the first time, she says she witnessed him inject heroin and "blamed" herself.
Christine also explained that when she had her own kids she was reminded about Johnny putting drugs ahead of his family.
She writes: “I saw my dad inject heroin. As a teenager, I struggled with his addiction. I blamed myself. When I became a mum. I kept thinking about how he chose drugs over his own kids.
“But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realised it wasn’t as simple a choice for him. Addiction is an illness.”
The model also shared that the day after she crawled over one of her father's needles, her mother Joanne walked away from him.
Praising her mum, Christine said: "My mum longed for that relationship to work. It broke her heart. I’m so grateful she did leave him and that she got [us] away.”
Christine reveals in her book that she now has good relationship with her father, but admits he has never met Paddy and she would never let him meet their children.
