Paul Merson is fighting to keep his place in BBC show Strictly Come Dancing
Strictly: Matt claims Paul Merson won’t get a higher score
Arsenal legend Paul Merson is fighting to keep his spot in Strictly Come Dancing as the popular TV show returned for another weekend of sparkle and style.
The former England player narrowly made it through Week 3, going head-to-head with Toyah Willcox in a tense dance-off but was ultimately saved by the judges, leading to the departure of the 80s star. Despite the stress, Merson is making the most of the opportunity, taking on a new challenge, a remarkable achievement given his past personal struggles.
The football commentator has been open about his previous battles with gambling, alcohol, and drug addiction and now hopes to inspire others through his appearance on the BBC show. “Being an addict and a recovering alcoholic myself… to show people watching this show who have got addictions, that you can go out and do something like this… is so important,” he stated.
“Because addiction takes you away from everything. That’s all it ever does. It wants you on your own,” reports Wales Online. As he embarks on the Strictly journey, Merson reflects: “Now I’m going in front of millions of people doing something I’m not very good at. I used to think, ‘I can’t do things like that’ but now I’ve got the opportunity to try,” reports the Mirror.
Merson’s battle with addiction, particularly gambling and alcohol, is well-known. He has used his public platform to advocate for changes in the gambling industry, a habit that he admits cost him an eye-watering £7million over three decades.
Now, all betting firms have barred him, and his income, including the substantial six-figure sum from his Strictly Come Dancing appearance, goes directly to his wife Kate to prevent him from wasting it on gambling.
He admitted that his gambling problems led him to consider suicide “every day”. Speaking to talkSPORT, he revealed that he only felt relief when he “had nothing left”.
“When I got to zero I was like, ‘I don’t have to do this any more’,” he said. “How mad is that? I was playing at Aston Villa playing away at Charlton. No one ever shared a room with me because I was gambling and never slept in the afternoon and I wanted to break my fingers so I couldn’t pick the phone up – that’s how bad the compulsion was.”
In another candid admission, he also confessed that his struggles continued during the Covid-19 lockdowns, as he gambled away a £160,000 deposit for a family home on table tennis bets. Earlier this year, Merson proudly announced that he has been clean and sober from alcohol and drugs for five years, having also struggled with these addictions during his career.
In 1994, he admitted at a press conference that he was addicted to cocaine, leading the FA to step in and send him to rehab.
In his candid memoir, as excerpted in the Mail, footballing icon Paul Merson shares a raw account of his darkest hours wrestling with addiction. “I started going to an all-night pub in Smithfield Market. Drinking on my own and snorting in the toilets,” Merson opened up, further detailing: “I’d hail a black cab at 8am to take me up to training and even have a couple of big hits sitting in the back.”
Not shying away from his troubled past, Merson revealed the depths of his struggles: “I had bookies chasing me, dealers chasing me. I settled one cocaine debt by handing over my Arsenal blazer and reporting it stolen. Paranoia took over.”
Despite tough times at Arsenal, England, Middlesbrough, Aston Villa, and Portsmouth during his illustrious career, he now celebrates an estimated net worth of £12million.
Paul Merson’s life off the pitch is filled with love; this summer, he and his wife Kate toasted to eight wonderful years together. Their family life burgeons with joy as they bring up son Freddie and their two daughters Sienna and Sadie.
Merson’s first marriage was to Lorraine Costin, with whom he bore three sons before their separation in 2001 due to her discovery of the extent of his gambling woes.
His subsequent marriage to Louise Bache, mother to his twin girls Mollie and Maisie, also collapsed in 2013 amid his ongoing struggles with addiction. Displaying a lighter side on the Strictly launch show, he joked about his limited dance history: ‘I’ve danced three times – they were all at my weddings!”
