AS Spencer Matthews prepares to run 30 scorching desert marathons in 30 days, he has told how extreme exercise has saved his marriage and his life.
The former Made In Chelsea star, who was once so addicted to booze that even his own family shunned him, said: “I look back at the time wasted where I could have been turning myself into something else.”
Speaking exclusively to The Sun on Sunday, 35-year-old Spencer added: “There have been times in my life when I’ve really felt like an outsider with my own family, because of my behaviour and general attitude.
“I had a kind of arrogance about me, where I just felt like I could do stuff without actually doing it.
“I had such a bad relationship with alcohol. I abused alcohol all the way up till my late twenties.
“I almost felt like I wasn’t trusted by certain people in my own family. I lived with a fair amount of shame.
“I’d know that the drinking was a bit out of control, I would know that I shouldn’t really be doing it.
“I had this kind of blasé approach to life where I had this thing about me that was pretty unattractive.
“When I look back I do think it’s why, when people mentioned Made In Chelsea, I get a bit like, ‘Euch!’, because it was around all that time.”
But tomorrow, Spencer — dad to Theodore, five, Gigi, three and two-year-old Otto with 38-year-old model and presenter Vogue Williams — will show just how far he has come.
For he will risk death in an attempt to raise £1million for the charity Global’s Make Some Noise by asking people to donate £1 per marathon — as he bids to become a World Record holder for the most consecutive marathons on sand.
Spencer will run across the blistering Jordanian desert, where the temperature regularly rises above 40C.
Even the uber-fit tee- totaller is expecting the worst — but he says it is worth the risk, even though his brother Michael died while on Mount Everest in 1999, after becoming the youngest Brit to reach the summit, at 22.
He said: “There’s every chance it could go wrong. During these races I’ve regularly come across somebody laid up on the side of the road in trouble.
“I’ve always been curious about how far the body and mind can go. I’ve had some of my most transformational experiences during ultras.
I had such a bad relationship with alcohol. I abused alcohol all the way up till my late twenties
“Certain athletes have achieved things that feel like they might be impossible. I find that really inspiring.
“I think back to when I had a terrible relationship with alcohol, I would do certain things for how it might be perceived, like running, so people would think, ‘Oh, he can run marathons’. It was all for the wrong reasons.”
Running now has helped Spencer to overcome addiction.
He said: “I feel like coming from a position of having a really bad relationship with alcohol to being able to pull myself together through those experiences. It feels like I’m heading in the right direction.
“Now I feel like I’m competing with myself. I don’t care so much about what other people make of it.”
Vogue will be cheering him on at the finishing line, alongside Theodore and Gigi, though Spencer says doing the challenge would be “her worst nightmare.”
His chequered past includes multiple infidelities and drug scandals, and he even got thrown out of I’m A Celebrity in 2015 for taking steroids.
He quit drinking in 2018 after his daily intake reached five to ten pints of beer and half a bottle of whisky.
Now Spencer, the brother-in-law of the Princess of Wales’s sister Pippa Middleton, wants to launch a running club for addicts, in the hope that others can also be healed by exercise.
Spencer, who founded booze-free spirit company CleanCo, said: “I’d love to start a CleanCo running club for everyone, but with an element for alcoholics and addicts to run — first thing on a Saturday to keep people out of trouble, so they don’t blow the doors off on the Friday night.”
I’ve always been curious about how far the body and mind can go
Spencer, who revealed he was 4st overweight during his drinking days, added: “Vogue doesn’t like it when I get too muscly — or too thin.
“I’m lighter because the mileage is totting up. Vogue will want me to gain weight afterwards.
“You’ll never be perfect, there’s always something to aim for.”
Although Vogue may be an exception to that rule.
Spencer said: “I think she is one of the most beautiful people around. Her fitness is phenomenal, she trains every day.
“We now take supplements every morning, a gut probiotic called Heights, which has helped me sleep better and recover faster. I feel incredibly lucky to be married to her, we love each other very much.
“And at the risk of sounding a bit lame, we are just best friends.”
For Spencer — whose exes include former Made In Chelsea colleagues Caggie Dunlop, Louise Thompson, Lucy Watson and Stephanie Pratt — having a strong marriage and financial success are now the most important goals in his life.
He said: “I have a good marriage, which is hard to beat. Like any married couple we bicker from time to time, we’re by no means perfect.
“But life feels incredible when things are great at home and your kids are healthy and happy. It’s a difficult feeling to beat.”
In fact, family man Spencer adores his home life so much, he revealed that his next challenge might just be having more kids.
He said: “Vogue is Irish, so all bets are off. She has something like 19 aunties, 58 cousins and whatever else. I’m all for it.”
