My wife’s gambling addiction is ruining our marriage

DEAR DEIDRE: WE’VE been left thousands of pounds in debt by my wife’s gambling addiction and it is ruining our marriage.

Every time I try to reason with her she refuses to admit she has a problem.

She’s 32 and I’m 37. We have a five-year-old daughter and have been together for six years.

I found out about her habit when I was checking our finances and saw that large chunks of our money were disappearing.

She promised she would stop but things have escalated. Now she’s racked up £12,000 in debt and has started pawning our belongings.

I can’t understand why she’s being so reckless and have no clue how I can get her to stop. Every time I try to talk to her about it she shuts me down.

I’m at my wits’ end and while I know I should consider divorcing her, I’m worried about the effect it will have on our daughter. Please help.

DEIDRE SAYS: Her addiction is clearly taking a toll on you and spoiling your lives. She has a problem and must seek urgent help.

You need to be cruel to be kind. Tell her it’s hopeless hiding from this addiction and she needs to start facing up to it.

Explain how concerned you are and that you can’t take much more.

She can contact gamcare.org.uk (0808 8020 133) for support.

I’m also sending you my support pack Gambling Problems? Which has more advice.