Seann Walsh reveals why he wanted his drug addicted father to stay on heroin – as emotional star discusses the ‘surreal’ aftermath of that Strictly kiss and learning to live again after going sober aged 33

Seann Walsh has opened up about how his father’s heroin addiction continued to affect his life, his own struggles with alcohol, and the difficult consequences he faced after his controversial time on Strictly Come Dancing.

Before appearing on the 2018 season of Strictly Come Dancing, Walsh was already well-known as a popular comedian and frequent guest on TV panel shows.

Growing up wasn’t easy. I’m 40 now, and looking back, my childhood in Lewisham, South London – with my parents and brother – was really defined by my father’s struggles with addiction. We later moved to Brighton, but those early years definitely left a lasting impression on who I am today. It’s something that shaped my perspective, and honestly, it’s a part of my story I’m now comfortable sharing.

Oh my god, I just listened to the new Begin Again podcast with Robbie Walsh, and it absolutely broke my heart. He talked about growing up realizing his dad wasn’t just…moody. It was tied to whether or not he could get heroin. Like, as a kid, Robbie figured out his father’s feelings completely depended on the drugs. It’s just… devastating to think about.

He explained that growing up with a father addicted to heroin created a strange situation: he actually missed seeing his dad using drugs. The real problem wasn’t when his father was high, but everything else that came with the addiction. He believes others who’ve experienced similar family struggles would understand this feeling.

It’s different with drugs than with alcohol, I think. You wouldn’t want your mother intoxicated, but as a child, you might want your father to use drugs because it would put him in a good mood. He’d be happy and generous, maybe giving you twenty pounds to go have fun.

He explained that the biggest issue with his parent’s drug use was their complete absence when not using. He described his father as being either high on heroin or completely bedridden, with no state in between.

‘So yes, we wanted him on that, which is obviously a very strange place to be.’

The comedian has drawn upon his challenging relationship with his father—who has since overcome addiction—for material in his comedy specials, including ‘Kiss’ and ‘Seann Walsh: Is Dead, Happy Now?’

Walsh says after his family moved to Sussex, he was asked to keep his father’s struggles with addiction hidden throughout his teenage years.

He made us promise to keep it a secret, he remembered. That was the first time I realized what he was doing was wrong – I didn’t know it was heroin at the time, but I just knew it wasn’t right.

I was around 11 or 12 years old, in middle school, and he specifically told me to keep it a secret.

We were starting to notice things, becoming aware enough to describe how my dad had this habit of rolling up paper towels, covering them in aluminum foil, and then burning something brown on top.

The comedian is happily settled down with his partner, Grace Adderley, and is now a father to two children: Wylda, who is three years old, and Oscar, who is eleven months old. They welcomed Wylda in 2019 and Oscar in 2025.

Becoming a father was a major reason he decided to stop drinking, as he recognized he’d become reliant on alcohol.

After being sober for a long time, Walsh began to wonder who he really was, having defined himself for years by his relationship with alcohol.

He remembered deciding to quit in 2019, and while he managed okay, he only ever relapsed with major setbacks – he never had small slips, just complete failures.

Whenever I drank alcohol, it led to excessive indulgence. I experienced several instances of this in 2019, but thankfully, I’ve managed to stay sober ever since.

It’s surprising to realize you simply won’t feel like doing something. That’s the part that’s hard to picture. You can understand choosing not to drink, making a conscious decision to stop, but it’s impossible to imagine actually losing the desire to drink altogether.

It’s liberating to realize you don’t have to do something, or even want to. People often think they drink to experience being drunk, but the real reason is usually to escape being sober. Recognizing that is a powerful insight.

I struggled with alcohol from age 17 to 33, and it felt like I skipped over becoming a real adult. It was like going straight from being a teenager to… just not maturing at all. So, when I turned 33, I had a real identity crisis. I didn’t know who I was, what I enjoyed, or what I wanted to do with my life.

He explained that he didn’t crave a drink first thing in the morning, but he did look forward to the evening and being able to drink.

That defined your day, and that was what drove you. Now, go have a really strong drink.

After getting sober, he began to rebuild his comedy career and return to television. However, appearing on Strictly Come Dancing in 2018 unexpectedly set his progress back.

The comedian faced major controversy when a video surfaced of him kissing his married dance partner, Katya Jones, while he was also in a relationship with actress Rebecca Humphries. This became the biggest scandal of the show.

After the situation came to light, Humphries stated he’d called her a ‘psycho’ because she’d asked about his friendship with Jones. This came before video surfaced showing them kissing on a night out – which happened to be his girlfriend’s birthday.

He admitted it was incredibly hard to sum up everything that happened afterward. What struck him as particularly strange, he said, was how much enjoyment some people seemed to get from the situation and from your personal experiences.

It’s a part of my past, and you can’t truly return to who you were before a significant event. Once something like that happens, it changes you, and you live with that change for the rest of your life.

He explained that you can’t change the past, so the only way to move ahead is to forge a new path. He admitted it took him a long time to realize this.

Once I realized that, accepting the situation became much easier. I had to learn to live with it, because it couldn’t be erased. Whether good or bad, it was now a part of who I am, and it was time to move on.

If you have been affected by anything in this story, call FRANK on: 0300 123 6600.

2026-02-05 19:56

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