Gordon Ramsay speaks out on his decision to become sober after his ‘traumatic’ childhood
He's been sober for two years
For years, Gordon Ramsay has been defined by intensity. The shouting. The standards. The schedule that would make most of us lie down in a dark room.
But Netflix’s new documentary, Being Gordon Ramsay, pulls back the curtain in a way we haven’t quite seen before.
Yes, there’s still the drive and the ambition that was never going anywhere, but there’s also something quieter running underneath it all.
Because away from the kitchens and cameras, Gordon has made a very deliberate choice… he lives a largely sober life. And the reasons why are far more personal than you might expect.
Gordon Ramsay lives a largely sober life
Gordon isn’t positioning himself as the poster boy for sobriety. Instead, it’s woven naturally into the way he lives now.
In the documentary, you see a man whose routine is built around discipline. Early starts. Brutal training sessions. International travel. Expanding restaurants. Being present for his wife, Tana, and their children. There simply isn’t much room for excess.
Speaking to Jason Fox in 2024, Gordon said he turns to fitness to destress in life. But, it’s not just about productivity or fitness. Gordon has spoken openly about how alcohol featured in his childhood, and not in a celebratory way.
Growing up with instability shaped how he views drinking as an adult.
Gordon has often talked about wanting to be the opposite of what he experienced growing up.
He said in Being Gordon Ramsay that his relationship with his father, Gordon James Sr, was “torrid.”
Gordon continued to add that his father was a violent alcoholic: “My father called me a snob once… I said, ‘No, I’m not a snob, I just want to get out of this s**t mess that I was born in.’ I had to sit there, you know, at weekends and almost watch him ruin his life through alcohol.”
“…So, in many ways, I’m using that awful relationship to become a better dad.”
Why he opts out of drinking alcohol
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Gordon has never hidden the fact that his father struggled with alcoholism.
In interviews, he has described the tension that filled the house when his father drank.
Reflecting on those memories, he said: “It’s hard, isn’t it, when someone’s an alcoholic? … you’re nervous… you’re worried about… hitting the end of the bottle and seeing that bottle of Bacardi disappear, because you know what happens at the end of that.”
His father passed away from a heart attack at 53, a year before Gordon opened his first restaurant, so he was tragically never able to try his son’s food.
Reflecting on that, Gordon said: “Of course, deep down inside, I would have liked for my dad to have tasted something and to have said ‘yes, good job’.
“I would’ve loved for him to have understood, even if he didn’t back what I was doing or didn’t understand it. You want validation from your parents, but I’ll come back to the values that I stand for, and the most important family ever is the family that you build.”
Gordon’s brother struggles with addiction
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Gordon has also spoken about the impact addiction has had on his wider family.
His brother Ronnie has battled heroin addiction for four decades, something Gordon addressed candidly in the documentary.
“I have a brother who’s a heroin addict… he’s been an addict for the last four decades… I’ve gone to hell and back with him, and so I have a guilt complex,” he admitted in episode two.
He added: “I was so close to not making it, that’s what keeps me going”.
Gordon also told Jason Fox in the 2024 interview that he “lost a chef to that substance.”
He explained: “Sadly, I still have a brother that’s an addict, so those reminders are at the forefront of my mind, to stay on that straight and narrow and deadly focused. I go back to responsibility, I have a lot of individuals on my team, so we’re codependent, so there’s no way I can afford a f*** up.”
Back in 2021, Gordon also said that he was “proud” of his daughter, Holly, as she celebrated one year without alcohol, per The Independent.
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