Corrie’s Kevin Kennedy drank bottle of vodka a day before soap bosses ‘saved him’

The actor drank a Diet Coke two days later, went shopping in Manchester, and then passed out.

“I came to in the ambulance, and it scared the hell out of me,” he remarked. Although I knew I would die if I continued, my addiction prevented me from understanding it emotionally.

He was then sent to The Priory Rehab Clinic after finally telling the show’s producers about his hidden addiction.

As he approaches 25 years sober, Kevin said he is convinced that the program “saved my life.”

Kevin stated in a 2020 interview: “I will always be grateful to ITV for sending me to rehab and giving me a chance.

Before the producers of Coronation Street “saved” his life and got him to give up alcohol, Kevin Kennedy would drink a bottle of vodka every day on his way to work.

After having a seizure and waking up in an ambulance in the late 1990s, the actor, 60, who portrayed television fan favorite Normal “Curly” Watts for twenty years, changed his life.

The star’s addiction was so bad that when his wife Claire left him, he wasn’t even sad about it because he believed it was a good thing because it allowed him to drink alone without having to hide, he told The Sun.

Kevin recalled the turning point in May 1998, when he decided to quit drinking cold turkey after returning from a drinking-intensive vacation with Claire in Barbados.

He told The Sun that he considered himself to be a “maintenance drinker” and that he never got out of hand.

I knew my drinking wasn’t normal because nobody else I knew drank in the morning, canceled plans because they couldn’t get a drink, or only went on vacations where they could drink the most, but I couldn’t stop, he admitted.

Following his sobriety, Kevin pursued his passion for music and left the soap opera in 2003 due to the strain of having two demanding careers.

He has performed at the West End and Reading Festival, and he is currently on tour with the Rock of Ages production as Dennis Dupree, the proprietor of the Bourbon Room.

In 2020, Kevin expressed his desire to go back to the cobbles.

I’d really like to go back to Coronation Street, he declared.

“I still enjoy working with ITV, and I believe Curly would have some interesting tales to share.

“Coronation Street underwent a lot of changes and modernization.

It’s a different soap from when I was in it, but when I joined it was a different program from ten years earlier.

When supermarket assistant manager and former binman Curly wed barmaid Raquel, played by Sarah Lancashire, the episode was seen by more than 22 million people.

When fans run into Kevin, they still yell “Raquel” at him.