Strictly Come Dancing star Tony Adams has been happily married to whiskey heiress wife Polly Teacher for 18 years.
But before that, the Arsenal legend famously dated model Caprice Bourret - comparing their physical connection to a 'drug'.
The former England defender met Caprice in 1999 after guiding the Gunners to a league and cup double the season before. They dated for four months before Adams broke it off.
Writing in his autobiography, Sober, Tony said it was the lack of a mental bond that caused him to end it.
He wrote: "I don’t think it was purely physical – and there were plenty who would say I was punching above my weight... I liked her very much. She was an honest and sincere woman. And, I have to say, I felt like a king in the company of this beautiful woman.
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"In the end, though, I knew I would have to end the relationship due to the lack of emotional connection.
"It felt like an act, that she was playing a game before and after she met me. The honesty and sincerity I saw initially got lost behind the facade. I did have second thoughts – and there is always regret when a relationship ends. But I knew it was right to move on. Sex can be such a drug and could have kept me in the relationship."
Tony also revealed that the two of them had the chance to reunite on reality television, but he decided against the move.
"A few years later I was asked if I would be interested – for £50,000 – in going on Celebrity Big Brother," he continued.
"I then read in the papers that Caprice was going on the show and rang her up, as we were still civil towards each other. We both agreed the producers were probably looking for fireworks between us in the “house” and I told her it was not for me."
Three years before his fling with Caprice, Tony, 55, got sober after a decade of alcoholism that saw him black out, sleep with prostitutes and wind up in intensive care.
His torment finally ended at 5pm on a Friday afternoon in August 1996, when, after a six-week bender, he drank his last pint of Guinness, stopped to get some fish and chips, and went home to detox. The following Monday he joined AA and hasn't touched a drop since.
The bender that ended all benders kicked off minutes after England’s defeat in the European Championship semi-final, which Tony had been at the helm for.
After refusing to drink in the build-up to the tournament, back at the dressing room he reached for a beer and the wheels were in motion.
The next day, as his teammates headed home to partners and family, Tony - whose first wife Jane Shea had left him and taken their children - realised he had nowhere to go. So he went to the pub.
He wrote: "That's the start of a six-week bender. Benders like that are hard to explain: I'm lost, bewildered, confused.
"You know what? There's no use in over-analysing it – I'm just getting smashed the whole time, day after day.
"Everything is about the booze and it becomes a blur. Out in a pub garden or at a club, sometimes eating, often not. Personal hygiene? That goes out the window."
After reaching rock bottom, Tony turned his life around and went on to win four major trophies as a player before retiring and going into coaching.
He set up charity Sporting Chance in 2000 to help footballers and other sports stars recover from addiction.
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