Overview
- Appearing on Good Morning Britain, the 58-year-old said he can go months without drinking before two-day relapses, has rejoined AA, and described himself as a “sad drunk” who battles depression and OCD.
- He tearfully described a childhood trauma in which an eight-year-old boy died in his lap, saying football later became his escape from the anxiety and tics that followed.
- In serialised passages from Eight, Gascoigne recounts injuring then-wife Sheryl during a 1996 incident at the Gleneagles Hotel and expresses lasting regret for the episode.
- The book also revisits a pre-professional hit-and-run in which he struck a pedestrian, panicked and fled before later being fined and given licence points despite not yet having a licence.
- Viewers responded with concern to his emotional interview, and the memoir, published on October 23, is driving renewed scrutiny of his past alongside support for his openness about addiction.