This Morning’s doctor ‘begged mum to choose her over alcohol and suicide’

Dr Zoe Williams has has spoken out about how she begged her mum to stop drinking as a teenager.

The 40-year-old This Morning doctor has revealed the troubles of growing up with an alcoholic mother and the effect it had on her.

The TV doc said that her mother Marilyn also tried to take her life on several occasions, before she died in 2017.

Writing for The Sun, Dr Zoe said: “I was barely 16 when I stood before my mum, pleading and crying, before going to school.

“I was begging her to choose me instead of alcohol.

“Mum tried to take her own life several times in the grip of her addiction.

“She wasn’t successful but her attempts made it clear living was excruciating for her.”

Dr Zoe said that her mum was a “caring” woman but when she had turned 14, her mother had started a new relationship and was now drinking heavily.

As the doctor studied for her A-levels, her mum had turned a glass of vodka a day into a bottle every 24 hours and it got harder still for the teen from there.

When Dr Zoe turned 18, she looked to get out of the house as she couldn’t trust her mum’s mood swings and decided to sofa-surf at her friends.

Dr Zoe eventually headed to medical school and during that time, her mother had some help from her GP but unfortunately, none of it was able to help her long term.

She continued: “Mum hated being told what to do in rehab so would leave. I was at medical school when I finally accepted Mum would drink herself into an early grave.”

Zoe said that the drinking could turn her mum from a loving person to a “violent and upset” one and there was nothing she could do to get her to stop.

Marilyn died with Dr Zoe and son Linton by her side – this was in 2017 and her death came from alcohol-related heart failure.

Do you have a story to sell? Get in touch with us at [email protected] or call us direct 0207 29 33033