CHRISTINE McGuinness has revealed the simple things she wants for her kids after growing up with a drug addicted father.
The 33-year-old opened up at how her father is a heroin addict who would inject in front of her as a teenager and she does not want that life for her own kids.
Christine is mum to twins Leo and Penelope, eight, and five-year-old Felicity with comedian Paddy McGuinness and wants to provide stability for her young family.
"We didn't have it easy growing up, my dad is a heroin addict, he started heroin before I was born. My mum left and raised me and my brother and sister on her own," she opened up to Sophie Ellis-Bextor on her Spinning Plates podcast.
"I just wanted them to have hot water and a nice house, nothing to the extent that of what I've got, this is beyond my wildest dreams."
Christine also credited her mum Joanne as inspiration for protecting her as a child.
"She gave me the best thing she could without money, because she showed me what a strong independent woman is," she said.
The model opened up about her relationship with her dad in her book, Christine McGuinness: A Beautiful Nightmare, and recalled the pain of growing up with an addict parent.
Most read in Showbiz
LEGEND DEAD 
Meat Loaf 'dies of covid' age 74 with wife by his side as tributes pour in
Lauren Goodger reveals she's pregnant again – days after dumping baby's dad Charles
Katie Price's fiance picked her up from police station in 'untaxed car'
Katie Price's family fear future 'looks bleak' & want her back in rehab
Previously Christine had kept her father Johnny’s struggle with addiction out of the public domain.
But in her book she writes candidly about his battle with the Class A drug and revealed he is one of the longest living heroin addicts registered in the UK.
Christine said his troubles started when she was just a one-year-old baby and that after she crawled over one of his needles as a toddler, her mother Joanne left him – moving away from Blackpool to Merseyside.
Growing up with her sister Billie-Jo, Christine witnessed her father’s addiction first hand as a teenager but naturally struggled to understand why he chose to use Class A drugs over being a presence in her life.
She wrote: “I saw my dad inject heroin. As a teenager, I struggled with his addiction. I blamed myself. When I became a mum. I kept thinking about how he chose drugs over his own kids.
“But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realised it wasn’t as simple a choice for him. Addiction is an illness.”
But sadly, 30 years on from the start of his struggle with addiction, she said she doubts he will ever be able to get clean for good.
Despite this Christine said she has a good relationship with her father but she makes clear that while she loves him, she will never be able to respect him.
Going back through all the moments in her life that he has missed, Christine said it is said to think he has chosen drugs over all the good things he could have had – including a relationship with her and Paddy and their children.
The difficulties have made Christine even closer to her mother Joanne however, who took Christine and her sister to safety – despite the decision meaning a harder life for them all.
Writing about her mum, Christine added: “My mum longed for that relationship to work. It broke her heart. I’m so grateful she did leave him and that she got [us] away.”
Source: Read Full Article