WAYNE Lineker has laid bare the extent of his recent health battles with pneumonia and booze – and admitted he was “close to death twice”.
The O Beach Ibiza club owner and Celebs Go Dating alum gave his first TV interview since his scary health diagnosis and hospitalisation on Tuesday’s Good Morning Britain.
During the chat, broadcaster Gary Lineker‘s younger sibling, 63, also celebrated his six month anniversary going sober after ditching booze and drugs.
Wayne, a familiar figure on the Mediterranean party scene, admitted he previously found himself in a “never ending cycle I couldn’t get out of” after admitting “my breakfast of choice was a cheese and tomato toastie and vodka red bull”.
He told ITV daytime hosts Susanna Reid, 55, and Ed Balls, 58, how his decision to lead a clean lifestyle came months before he had been left unable to walk after being rushed to hospital when he contracted a serious illness in December.
Looking smart in a black shirt and glasses as he sat at GMB’s new studio desk, he said: “Enough was enough for me after 40 years in the industry.
“Drinking pretty much every day for all that time took its toll.”
He continued: “I found myself in a never-ending cycle of a lack of energy when I woke up, and my breakfast of choice was a cheese and tomato toastie and vodka red bull.
“All day, every day. It was a never ending cycle I couldn’t get out of.”
He told how he was waking up “anxious” and not wanting to be alone before he ditched booze for good.
HEALTH HORROR
Yet five months into his lifestyle re-vamp, he was whisked to hospital after contracting pneumonia.
On today’s GMB, Susanna asked the businessman: “How bad was it when you were in hospital?”
He replied: “Well I was close to death twice.
“I went to Dubai and I caught an infection that I thought was very similar to Covid, so I put on a mask and went home
“This is about eight, nine weeks ago, and when I got home I was feeling really ill, the infection seemed to be getting worse.
“I had a couple of hours sleep and it was 2am. I went to bed and my phone was over on the other side of the room.
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“I woke up two hours later and I couldn’t move at all.
“I wasn’t paralysed but it was the pain I was receiving as it attacked my lower spine.
“I managed to crawl to the phone and it was probably the worst two minutes of my life as I was in pain.”
Wayne then explained how he called the ambulance and his daughter Tia, and told her he believed he was having a heart attack.
Susanna said: “People don’t realise how bad pneumonia can get”.
Wayne agreed and added: “It was so horrific, it’s not just a chest infection, its your whole body.”
He confessed he believed his five week rehab stint earlier in the year – to help him come off the booze – had left his immune system shot and therefore he was more susceptible to illness.
WAYNE’S VIEW
The club owner is now hoping to open a rehab centre to help others following his battles.
He was eager to make a distinction between those who can handle their drink and those who can’t, and put himself in the latter category.
He told GMB his target audience are the “small percentage who can’t stop when they have started who I wanted to get a message to help.”
He continued: “I am in the percentage that can’t, and those type of people, you’re either like that or you’re not.
“If you are like that that’s when you need to give up”.
