TELLY presenter Adrian Chiles has blamed a school trip to Germany for his love of booze.
The 55-year-old former One Show host said he had his first taste of alcohol on an exchange visit to Leonberg, near Stuttgart, when he was 14.
Adrian Chiles says a school trip to Germany at 14 is to blame for his love of booze
He said he remembered downing a stein of lager at a brewery in the early 1980s — and immediately “fell in love” with drink.
In 2018, Chiles presented a BBC Two documentary called Drinkers Like Me in which he said he was downing 100-plus units of alcohol a week — around 50 pints.
The dad of two, who has now cut down his boozy ways, added: “Forty years later, having put petrol-tanker quantities of alcohol through my system, I can see the significance of that first drink.
“And, more importantly, the significance of the first drink on any given occasion.
“The first one is the only one that matters; it’s the only one that brings about a wondrous change in your emotional state.
“All subsequent drinks are increasingly fruitless attempts to recreate that initial feeling.”
