Spencer Matthews said he thinks wife Vogue Williams “would have left” him if he carried on drinking.
The reality star, 37, has been open about his journey with alcohol, following “bad habits” with booze, and even owns his own alcohol-free brand of drinks.
Matthews and Williams married in June 2018, and share son Theodore, seven, daughter Gigi, five, and son Otto, three.
Speaking on the On the Mend with Matt Willis podcast, he said: “I was very aware that if I carried on with my drinking and bad habits, that she would get bored, and she would leave me. And I knew that, and she never made that a thing.
“She never sat me down and gave me some kind of ultimatum or anything like that. But I could feel it. I could feel that she was a bit disappointed in me.”
He continued to open up, saying the “light was shone on my boozing when [Williams] fell pregnant with our firstborn, Theodore”.
“He made a big difference, I think, to our relationship, obviously, because I think what felt like joint fun became solo fun quite quickly because, obviously, she stopped drinking completely,” he continued.
“And I just didn't, I carried on, and it created this kind of divide in the relationship, but also made me realise, you know, maybe my drinking habits are not normal.”
Matthews added Williams would then question him on his drinking.
“And to begin with, I would say, like, 'Darling, we're watching a film, like, of course it's, like, normal to have a few glasses of red wine’,” he said.
“Like, we're at home chilling. And she's like, 'You're drinking on your own'. “And I'd be like, 'Yeah, because you're pregnant?' And she'd be like, 'Well, because I'm not drinking, do you have to, do you have to drink?' And we'd have the odd chat like that.
“And you kind of eventually, you just begin to think, why am I drinking on my own? And you begin to question stuff, perhaps for the first time.”
On Williams’ Taboo Talks podcast, Matthews previously said his career as a trader first encouraged him to drink.
“I always had jobs where being able to handle your drink really well was a huge bonus,” he said.
“I was a trader at ICAP and we would drink five to 10 pints every single day and then take clients out at night and if you couldn't do that, you wouldn't get the job, basically.”
He said he had a snap moment where he realised he needed to quit when one night, alone, he “had a bottle of whiskey and struggled to get myself to bed”.
“I was hammered drunk,” he said.
“I remember waking up the next day and I thought, "I don't need this in my life."
Matthews has said he now feels he’s able to drink in moderation, without it being an issue.
“I’m sober most of the time, now. I've gone from problem-drinking on a daily basis to having a drink if I feel like it very irregularly,” he said.
“I no longer see it as a problem. I have great balance in my life.”
