Oxo 'mum' Lynda Bellingham reveals battle with drink following divorce

The actress Lynda Bellingham has revealed she slipped towards alcoholism as her marriage to her abusive husband broke down.

Bellingham, who became famous for playing the homely matriarch from the Oxo TV commericials, said her two sons "suffered" from her being drunk on wine during the day at home.

She quit drinking, she said, because she "can't have just a glass", but "has to have a bottle or two".

Bellingham, 59, admitted her habit started spiralling out of control after her divorce.

Her second husband, restauranteur Nunzio Peluso, regularly assaulted and emotionally tortured her during their 16-year marriage.

He then conducted a two-year campaign of harassment after their divorce which was only ended by a 1999 court case, a £4,000 fine and a restraining order preventing him coming near the home she shared with their two sons, Michael, now 24, and Robbie, now 19.

"I went through a bad patch at home where I would drink a lot," she said on TV's Loose Women programme.

"I didn't notice I was drinking a lot and then girlfriends would come round and we'd sit there all day knocking back the wine and I think my sons have suffered from me being drunk.

"I didn't fall down but I could see on their faces actually in retrospect that 'Oh my goodness, mum's had one too many' and I think that's a horrible thing to put on any child.

"Now I've given up drinking because I personally can't have just a glass. I have to have a bottle or two," she said on the ITV talk show.

She revealed in another interview that she drank red wine through both her pregnancies.

Asked what she "loves", she replied: "Red wine I'm convinced it's good for me.

"I drank it through my pregnancies and the nurses were really very impressed by my wonderful iron levels, thanks to the old red wine."

Bellingham appeared in the Oxo commercials for 16 years until 1999.