Sheridan Smith opens up about her struggles with alcohol ahead of upcoming ITV drama role
One of Britain’s most recognisable cult actors says she no longer turns to old coping mechanisms - and has found a new way to live.
Sheridan Smith, who has starred in shows like Gavin & Stacey and the Royle Family, revealed she has stopped relying on alcohol and now leans on therapy, sobriety, yoga, and motherhood to stay grounded.
Speaking to the Guardian, the 44-year-old admitted she once treated acting itself as a form of therapy, but a turning point pushed her to seek professional help.
Smith went through what she called a public “meltdown” in 2016, triggered by her father Colin’s terminal cancer diagnosis. She later took time away from work, welcomed her son Billy in 2020 with former partner Jamie Horn, and has since moved back to the north of England.
She said: “Obviously I used to drink and find my way through it that way - but now I’ve found therapy, got my little boy, I’m sober, doing yoga and meditation, I’m a totally different person.
“I am going to choose my parts [in TV and film] very carefully. Sobriety and my son come first, so anything that might knock me off kilter I would be careful of.”
Her latest role, in ITV’s upcoming drama I Fought the Law, tested those changes. Smith plays Ann Ming, the nurse who fought to overturn the UK’s double jeopardy rule in order to bring her daughter’s killer to justice. The actor admitted the part “took it out” of her, particularly during a scene where Ann confronts her grandson.
Smith added: “I didn’t realise Ann was watching - I don’t think I could have done it if I had known - until she walked on set and said: ‘It was like you’re in my body.’
“We were both bawling our eyes out.”