Richard E Grant doesn’t drink on Celebrity Traitors, because his body can’t process alcohol

Richard E Grant has already managed to turn Celebrity Traitors upside down after openly telling everyone he’s one of the Traitors, but there’s one thing you definitely won’t be seeing him do in the castle: Drinking.

Via BBC

The Withnail & I actor has spent most of his life avoiding alcohol because of a rare condition which means his body doesn’t properly process it. While the rest of the castle gets stuck into the wine, Richard has a very good reason for staying well away from it.

The actor has previously described himself as having an “allergy” to alcohol, explaining that he doesn’t have the enzyme needed to process it properly.

Alcohol intolerance can cause symptoms including vomiting, diarrhoea, fatigue and a racing heart. For Richard, though, drinking leaves him feeling seriously unwell.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner in 2006, he explained: “I have an allergy to drink. I get a terrible rash and get ill for about 24 hours. I went to a doctor when I was 19 and he said I had none of the enzyme in my blood that processes alcohol.

“He asked if I had Japanese blood. Or Inuit. Or Native American, because they have none of this enzyme. The French as a tribe have the most of it.

“It wasn’t for lack of wanting to do it, it was just I am unable to, which is ironic because when I say I don’t drink, people say: ‘Oh, are you on the programme?’”

Via BBC

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Which, considering he has now entered a reality show where everyone is constantly suspicious of everyone else, is quite the unfortunate coincidence.

Richard has also spoken about growing up with an alcoholic father, who was abusive towards him. When he was 15, Richard tried to stop his father drinking by pouring 12 bottles of Scotch down the sink. It did not exactly go to plan.

Speaking on Desert Island Discs, he recalled: “When I was 15 I naively thought that if I emptied all 12 bottles of Scotch down the sink that he would somehow stop drinking.

“I was on the 11th bottle and felt something very cold on the back of my head and it was a gun. He missed because he was so drunk and then I ran away from home for a couple of weeks,” he said.

“But having said that, my memory of him is so much more than remembering that part of him, because I knew that was something that was entirely brought about by addiction, rather than the man that I absolutely worshipped and loved.”

Despite becoming one of the most recognisable faces in British film, Richard has barely drunk at all during his adult life.

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Featured image via BBC