EastEnders' Adam Woodyatt quit drinking on doctors' advice and lost three stone

Updated
Adam Woodyatt  attends The British Soap Awards 2017
Adam Woodyatt has given up drinking alcohol and shed three stone. (Getty Images) (Jeff Spicer via Getty Images)

EastEnders star Adam Woodyatt has revealed he gave up drinking for health reasons - and has now been teetotal for over a year.

The 53-year-old actor and I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! - best known for playing Albert Square chip shop owner Ian Beale - has told how he initially gave up alcohol for six weeks on doctor's advice, and has ended up losing three stone.

Woodyatt told The Sun newspaper: "I went into hospital with a stomach issue and they pointed out my liver was probably taking a bit of a hammering. They said, ‘Look, give your liver a rest for six weeks, we’ll do some tests.’

Read more: EastEnders' Adam Woodyatt: Ian Beale is 'stuck on the Circle Line'

“Then COVID happened and six weeks became 12 weeks.

Adam Woodyatt on screen as Ian Beale in 2021. (BBC)
Adam Woodyatt on screen as Ian Beale in early 2020. (BBC) (BBC/Kieron McCarron/Jack Barnes)

“And I thought, ‘Do you know what - I’ve cracked this, I don’t miss it, I’m better off without it.’"

The soap star added to The Mirror: “With giving up alcohol, the weight drops off and because the weight dropped it was easier to cycle. So it was easier to stay fit.

"For me, giving up alcohol was the right thing to do. I'm not going to turn around and say that's it forever, that I'm never ever going to drink again. But at this point in my life, yeah, I'm quite happy not drinking. And the result is I've lost about three stone in weight."

Woodyatt is a keen cyclist and revealed his weight-loss has allowed him to rediscover his hobby.

A slimmer Adam Woodyatt appeared on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! in december 2021. (ITV)
A slimmer Adam Woodyatt appeared on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! in December 2021. (ITV)

He said: "I used to love cycling but stopped for quite a while because obviously, it wasn't that easy when you are carrying that extra weight. I've just got back into it now because it fits with my life at the moment."

The actor - who starred in BBC soap EastEnders from October 1984 to November 2020 - has spent the last year living in a motorhome and touring the UK countryside.

The told the Cambridge Independent: "It was going to be just for whilst I was on tour [in stage adaptation of Peter James hit crime novel Looking Good Dead], but my daughter, who was living with me, has moved to America.

"So I didn't need a place for me and her. It was a case of well, fine, I'll just carry on living in the motorhome. I don't need that property anymore."

Ian Beale was last seen in Albert Square in January 2021 when his then-wife Sharon tried to poison him because she had found out he was responsible for her son Dennis Rickman drowning in a boat disaster the year before.

With Phil Mitchell also threatening to kill him Ian fled Walford, throwing his mobile phone away and later sending Sharon a marriage annulment.

There have been reports that Woodyatt is in talks to return to the soap.

Read more: Adam Woodyatt recounts 'very messy' birthday party with Grange Hill's Zammo

But he insisted in June 2022 to White Wine Question Time there were currently no plans for Ian Beale to come back to Albert Square, saying: "They've not asked, I've not asked them."

Watch: Adam Woodyatt talks about his new life on the road

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