Marcus Brigstocke reveals he was hooked on porn after cheating on his wife, beating drug and alcohol addiction
COMEDIAN Marcus Brigstocke has revealed he became hooked on porn after cheating on his wife.
The Love Actually star, 51, opened up about beating his drug and alcohol addiction at 17 and losing in incredible 13st in just nine months
Marcus was previously married to Sophie Prideaux from 2001 until 2013 but the couple split after she discovered he had been cheating.
He met Corrie and Dancing On Ice star Hayley Tamaddon in 2010 and they embarked on an affair when they toured together in musical Spamalot.
Marcus and Sophie decided to end their marriage in July 2014 – they share two children Alfie and Emily.
Speaking to host Ben Branson on The Hidden 20% podcast, Marcus reflected on his infidelity and said: “I did the most hurtful, chaotic, devastating thing I could think of, I had an affair which ended my marriage and there was two kids in the mix.
“The amount of shame I carried with that was huge, I didn’t defend myself publicly.
“I carried the mess of that around with me, and it had led to a lot of very dysfunctional behavior that I was in denial about.
“And, so I’d stayed sober from drugs, alcohol, and my compulsive eating disorder, but I had become addicted to porn.”
He continued: “I really had no idea that I was addicted to it. I sort of thought I looked at a normal amount of porn.
“The normal amount of porn today is not like a normal amount of porn. Well before the internet.
“So, addicts now who have a porn addiction, most of them were addicted from about the age of 11 to something that no one knows about, that changes your brain chemistry.
“And there are so many people with different depths of addiction to porn.
“But porn is the most toxic and it’s, it’s changing an awful lot of young men.”
Marcus admitted he had “fallen into a hole”, but said he “wasn’t ashamed” of spending several hours watching porn.
The funnyman said putting an end to this addition was a huge “relief” and he began to find “clarity” again after getting help.
Marcus spoke candidly about his recovery and insisted if he had kept his addiction a secret, if could have “killed him”.
He said: “You realise keeping things secret, for an addict, it will kill you.
“One of the biggest things about recovery addition, is if you lie to the people who love you, it is impossible for you to feel the love that they have for you, because they express either directly or indirectly love for you and you go ‘but you don’t know what I did’.
“So addicts in their addiction are lonely, they’re profoundly lonely.”
He revealed that he lost lost a staggering 13st in just nine months, saying he underwent a “very, very dramatic” body transformation.
“I went into a 12 step recovery for addiction when I was 17, I got sober when I was really young, I had a very very dramatic body change – I went from 24st to 11st in about nine months. I lost 13st in under a year as I turned 19,” he said.
Marcus is an English comedian known mainly for his stand-up and appearing on comedy panel shows such as Have I Got News For You.
He was born in Guildford, Surrey, on May 8, 1973.
Marcus, who is known for being tall and slender, has revealed that when he was 17 he ballooned to 25 stone before losing half his body weight in seven months in rehab.
He has also not had a drink since he was 17, revealing on Famous and Fighting Crime that he as never had a “legal drink”.
Marcus’ most notable appearance was in Love Actually – as the radio presenter who interviews Bill Nighy’s character.
Marcus has appeared on Have I got News For You, QI, Would I Lie To You? and The Jump among other things.
In 2016 he revealed that he was unable to work for a year after injuring himself on The Jump.
He’s also taken on safer roles, presenting TV shows The Joy of Techs, I’ve Never Seen Star Wars and Trophy People.