I quit booze for 3 months ... I didn’t even know if I could do it for a day

FOR a man whose love life has been just a little bit turbulent, Chris Evans might not be the first person you would turn to for advice about relationships.

Wed three times, he saw his first marriage to Loose Women panellist Carol McGiffin end in acrimony after seven years, while wife No2 Billie Piper was just 18 when they married in Las Vegas.

Wife No1 ... with TV presenter Carol in 1995 Dave Chancellor

Wife No2 ... with Billie in 2004 - the marriage lasted six years Getty Images

But now, with his hellraising days firmly behind him and happily married to third wife Natasha, the motormouth presenter has written a book giving tips on relationships and life.

And the former binge drinker even quit the booze for 100 days while writing it, to help him think more clearly. He was also secretly training for this year’s London Marathon, which he finished in under five hours.

It is a far cry from the riotous life-style he led in the 1990s, when he was regularly pictured falling out of pubs.

Calmer living ... days of hellraising are behind Evans Press Association

Chris — back on our screens tonight for the return of music and chat show TFI Friday — says: “I have been married three times. Does that make me bad at marriage, or an expert? I think I’m more qualified.

“If you climb three mountains are you more experienced than if you have climbed one? Yes, you are.”
He decided to write the book, Call the Midlife, after questioning who he was and where he was going in the run-up to his 50th birthday next April.

He consulted experts including a relationship counsellor, sex therapist, sleep doctor and Alcoholics Anonymous representative to try to find out what makes him tick.

And he says it made him realise he needed to work hard to “protect” his marriage to Natasha. The couple married in 2007 and have two sons — Noah, six, and three-year-old Eli.

Wife No3 ... Chris with Natasha, the current Mrs Evans Press Association

Chris says: “I just thought, ‘Where am I?’ Well, I’m in a better position than I have ever been in my life.

“I am more stable, more thoughtful. I feel like I have got more energy, I am more receptive about ideas.

“The number one thing I need to protect is my marriage. In order to do that I have to protect my health.

“This marriage is entirely different to any other marriage I’ve had. This marriage is much more committed, grown up, if you like.

“It is more of a partnership. We have children, we have bigger responsibilities and so it is entirely different.

“But it would be different, because when I got married the first time I was a certain age, a certain type of person. Then the second time and now it is third time, full stop.

”I met Chris on Wednesday morning after his Radio 2 breakfast show, for which he arrived half an hour late, due to a mix-up with his alarm.

Telly host Chris Evans with The Sun's Leigh Holmwood Jon Bond

In a mark of how he has changed from the old livewire, Duracell-bunny Chris who could never relax, he is almost zen about it. 

He says: “It is so un-rock ’n’ roll and so the opposite of what it would have been in the Nineties.

“I was late because I went home to Berkshire last night because of a parents’ evening — normally I would stay in London. And I didn’t set my alarm properly because it is a smartphone and I am old and don’t really know how to use it.

“I didn’t have a drop to drink and was in bed for 8.30pm. It is such a middle-aged reason for being late. But because it was so sort of innocent I had no guilt this morning.

“I didn’t drive in quickly, I just thought, ‘Well, I am going to be a bit late’, so I put the radio on and let people in front of my car — ‘Go ahead, late schmate’.

“A year ago I’d have driven as fast as I could without being arrested and I’d have got here as quick as I could.

“I feel better about things now. I feel less anxious.

”The old Chris of the 1990s quit his Radio 1 breakfast show and flounced out on TFI, leaving the final episodes to be fronted by guest hosts.

And in 2001 his boozy antics also led to his sacking by Virgin Radio when he failed to show up for his breakfast show six days on the trot.

Boozy antics ... Evans Chris Doyle

He was spotted in public on drinking binges with Billie while he was supposed to be on sick leave.

Chris says working with Alcoholics Anonymous for his book helped to convince him to cut back on the booze — and he is happier for it.

He says: “I went to see someone from AA about drinking. Do I drink too much, do I have anything to worry about? All of these things that play on my mind.

“I have always thought about it. When I did 100 days not drinking that was such a revelation because I didn’t touch a drop. I didn’t know I could do it for a day.

“And it was so much easier than I thought and so much less revelatory. It didn’t impact on my life at all really.

“I’ve massively cut back now. I don’t drink at all in the week unless I am going out, which is hardly ever.

“It is all about the definition of what an alcoholic is. I spoke to a woman who is recovering and she was amazing.

“She says most alcoholics she finds are huge egocentrics with an inferiority complex. It is a brilliant phrase.

”Ironically, Chris’s calm comes just as he is the busiest he has ever been.

As well as his five-days-a-week radio show and the ten-part series of TFI, he is preparing to host the revamped Top Gear next year.

New gig ... Evans is in the midst of preparing for his role on Top Gear Press Association

But he says: “It doesn’t feel like it is busy. If you look at the list of things I am doing then absolutely it is, but I don’t feel that.

“When I was doing TFI Friday before and had given up Radio 1, I only had one hour-long music show to do each week but I felt so insane and I didn’t have any time.

“I didn’t have anything compared to now but it is just our interpretation of it. I have loads to do but that’s OK.

”Chris got the Top Gear job after previous host and Sun columnist Jeremy Clarkson was sacked and his colleagues James May and Richard Hammond quit.

The trio’s new Amazon Prime car show will be on air first, though Chris says he is still mates with his new rivals — and wants them to guest on TFI.

Back in the summer he suggested Jeremy was “hearing voices” when he said the BBC had offered him his job back, but now Chris says: “James would definitely come on. I can’t see why Jeremy wouldn’t. They would definitely be welcome. Towards Christmas — let’s do it.

”Though Top Gear is not far from his mind, tonight is all about TFI, Chris’s madcap show that helped define the 1990s.

He says the new series will be different from the summer special in June, refusing to rest on the show’s laurels.

Tonight U2 and Take That will appear, while Justin Bieber is on next week and Cheryl Fernandez-Versini will do her only telly interview later in the series.

Chris says: “There are no gold bits. It will have new features because bringing back old ones would be lazy. But it will still have the same rhythm, vibe and mentality. It will still feel like TFI Friday has always felt.”

Chris is remarkably relaxed about juggling two of Britain’s biggest shows, but don’t make him choose one over the other.

He says: “I can’t have a favourite — I love all my children.”

— Call the Midlife (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) is published on October 22 in hardback at £20, eBook £10.99.