Tamzin Outhwaite says she's giving up boozy nights out amid 'fear' of next-day memory fog
Tamzin Outhwaite thinks it's time to start saying no to booze, after a string of nights out in which she had to call her friends the next day to find out what happened.
The 50-year-old former EastEnders star told The Sun she "feels like now is the time" to give up alcohol, after experiencing two-day hangovers.
She said: "It’s more of a hindrance, because if I do have a brilliant night and I love it, we’ve got stories for days about those good times.
“But then I’ve got two days where I’m not very clear. And you know, five drinks can do that to me now.”
Outhwaite confessed it "fills me with fear" when she has to phone her famous friends, including Holly Willoughby, Angela Griffin and Emma Bunton, to find out what happened the night before.
Outhwaite, who rose to fame in the late 1990s as Mel Owen in EastEnders, said she's struggling more with drinking as she gets older.
"When I’m not drinking I do feel better," said the actor. "I love being with my mates and having a drink and vibing with each other.
“But I’m very aware now that I can’t recover very well the next day. It takes longer as you get older."
She confessed that drinking was more of a problem for her generation of actors than it is for the "focused, ambitious and clean" performers coming up through the industry now.
“Everyone’s aware of the consequences of it, as the generations above have shown them," Outhwaite added.
Outhwaite made a return to Walford in 2018 and stuck with the show until her character was killed off in 2019 after being hit by a lorry in the wake of a dramatic car chase.
She competed in this year's inaugural series of The Masked Dancer, finishing in fourth place as the Scarecrow.
Earlier this month, Outhwaite confirmed she had been involved in a "traumatic" incident at a birthday party in which she jumped into a swimming pool to save three children from drowning.
She tweeted: "They were all from the same family, who could not swim & I did not know them. It was traumatic for all but I am just relieved that they are all ok."
