28 July 2023 , 14:33
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The Chase star Paul Sinha has revealed his biggest regret over his gambling addiction.
The 53-year-old, who is a regular on the ITV game show, spoke about the debilitating addiction he suffered with during his late teens during an interview with Kate Thornton on her White Wine Question Time podcast, and wished he’d never stepped foot in a betting shop.
“When people say, ‘what would you say to your 16-year-old self?’, what I would say is never, ever, ever walk into a betting shop in your life, because that's the one avenue of error where I don't think any positivity came out of it at all, just a lot of financial losses,” he shared.
“So, it’s not that every bad event has a sliding doors silver lining, it’s just most of them do,” Paul added.
He candidly shared the ways he deals with his addiction, and revealed he thinks about his gambling problem “a lot” because it was such a big part of his life.
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“At its worst I was very bad indeed,” Paul confessed.
Paul shared details of his devastating addiction (James Gourley/REX/Shutterstock)
Paul, who is married to husband Oliver, also discussed his sexuality (Instagram)He managed to beat the gambling demons and has credited using his phone for helping him kick the habit.
“Now, I can walk past a betting shop and not even have the slightest inclination to walk in,” he explained, as he said he’s “not bored anymore” due to playing on his phone, which he called his new “high”.
“I don’t need to gamble to get my high,” he told host Kate, as he said he had access to the “whole world in my hands”.
Paul, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2019, also discussed his sexuality during the lengthy chat, and said he was forced to come out to his mother after a friend played a prank on him.
During his time at medical school, a friend drunkenly called Paul’s mum at a house party, and outed him.
“I came out to my mum because somebody at a house party at our house rang my mum from our house phone and said, ‘your son's gay’ and put the phone down,” he shared, adding he can “laugh about it now”.