THE husband of RTE star Doireann Garrihy has opened up about his struggle with addiction and the road to recovery.
The 2FM host’s partner, Mark Mehigan, who is renowned for his hilarious Weekly Roast podcast, has shared his personal experience with becoming sober.
Appearing on Katriona O’Sullivan‘s podcast, Mark discussed exactly how his life has changed since deciding to become sober.
The Dublin native first attempted to get sober in 2019, but after a six-week stint of sobriety he endured one final alcohol and cocaine blowout at his cousin’s wedding.
The 33-year-old had his last drink in 2021, after he admitted he came close to “having a nervous breakdown”.
Speaking on how recovery has remodelled his outlook on life, the star said: “From a relationship perspective, it’s given me the ability to love somebody properly.”
Mark met his now wife, Doireann, just one year after he became sober and confessed that it was the first time he experienced “loving a person just for them entirely”.
After their first encounter, the smitten star said: “I texted one of my friends after our first date, and I was around 13 months sober, and was like, ‘That’s the first time in the last 13 months that I haven’t felt like an alcoholic’.”
“I don’t really like the phrase ‘when you know, you know’ because this is like nothing I’ve ever experienced before in my life, and Doireann is like nobody I’ve ever met before in my life.
“But there’s sides of myself that I’m showing her that I wasn’t even aware that I had.”
The funny man explained how sobriety also “gave him the ability to be loved and accept love”.
He added: “I know it sounds generic, but I’m still very early in recovery and as the layers get peeled back I’m like, Jesus Christ, I can’t believe how incapable I was of accepting anybody’s love.”
“It’s hard not to slip into recovery clichés, but also to accept life on life’s terms and not to expect perfection.”
Mark told how Doireann has never seen him drink and noted: “Please God she never will”.
‘DIFFERENT LENS’
The podcaster confessed that he finds it “hard to articulate” the “enormity” of what recovery really is.
The dad-to-be said: “What it continues to give me on a day-to-day basis is incalculable. But on a simple level, it has opened me up to loving somebody and accepting love.”
Mark compared his road to recovery to “getting a new pair of glasses” adding: “You genuinely see the world through a different lens.”
The comedian is now set to become a first-time dad this autumn and is “beside himself with joy”.
The star told Katriona that he hopes his child remembers him as a “loving person” and not for his previous behaviours.
