THE REAL ME

'I regret the pain I CAUSED MYFAMILY’

Former style guru and author Susannah Constantine, 60, lives in West Sussex with her husband Sten, 58, and their three children

What are you like first thing?

I used to be a morning person but now I’m not. I wake up early but it takes a while for the cogs to oil up. I’m fully functional by 9am. It takes me around 90 minutes to wash my face, get dressed and have breakfast, ideally on my own.

What’s your worst habit?

Eating too much chocolate. After I gave up alcohol 10 years ago, it became a crutch because of the sugar. I run three or four times a week so I can keep eating it.

What do you do when home alone?

When I’ve got nothing on, which isn’t often, the biggest stress of the day is thinking about what I’m going to cook for dinner. Then I’ll go through all the news sites. I’ll run or I’ll swim. I get domestic chores done and pay bills. Usually I’m wearing seven-day-old dirty jeans and a T-shirt, or I’m in my running kit all day, but I never come downstairs in my pyjamas.

What makes you happiest?

Being a mum, a wife and a home bird. If anything happened to my children or my husband I wouldn’t be able to cope.

What scares you most in life?

Being above water. If I’m going across a plank, even if it’s two inches above water, I freeze. It might have been triggered by going across a wire bridge in Scotland when I was heavily pregnant with my son. I got stuck in the middle for an hour and a half, and was swinging backwards and forwards over a fast-flowing river.

How do you feel about getting older?

I worry about illness, ailments and the body slowing down. Time passes so fast. I have anxiety and take anti-anxiety medication. I get a three-month prescription and every time I go to the pharmacy, I think, ‘Where has that time gone?’ All these little milestones rub your nose in the fact that, at 60, if I’m lucky, I’ve got 20 or 25 years left. That’s nothing! It’s why you have to live in the day.

Do you have any regrets in life?

The pain I caused my family through my alcoholism. I tell my kids