![\"Richard](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0_National-Television-Awards-2022-Arrivals.jpg\")
Richard Madeley has confessed to being so addicted to cigarettes he’d smoke 3 packs a day (Image: Gareth Cattermole\/Getty Images)<\/p>\nRichard Madeley <\/a>has revealed he used to secretly smoke 60 cigarettes a day – and shared the one thing that finally made him quit the unhealthy habit.<\/p>\n The 69-year-old presenter, who shot to fame presenting TV shows with his wife Judy Finnigan<\/a>, 77, confessed to having a ‘very addictive personality’. This is why he never tried drugs, as he was already so hooked on smoking.<\/p>\n Opening up to Busted star Matt Willis on his On The The Mend<\/a> podcast, Richard said he’d “never even smoked a joint”. Explaining why, he told Matt: “I was a very heavy smoker until I was 40. At one point I was on 60 – 3 packs a day – which is just ridiculous.<\/p>\n “I have a very addictive personality. I knew that – and cigarettes proved that to me – and so I’ve always been terrified of the heavier stuff. I mean, I drink a bit, I certainly drink wine. But I’m okay with it.”<\/p>\n In reference to Matt’s own struggles with drugs, Richard continued: “In terms of cocaine or pot, as we used to call it, I’ve always steered clear because it terrifies me. And I have a horrible feeling that I would fall into the same trap as you did. I don’t trust myself, so I’ve never gone near it.”<\/p>\n Saying cigarettes in their own way are just as dangerous as drugs, Richard said he started smoking when he was 16 once he got his first job as a reporter on a local newspaper “because everybody smoked” back in the early Seventies.<\/p>\n He continued: “It got to the point very quickly where you were covering a story, you came back to your typewriter at your desk, and you couldn’t write your story without getting a fag on the go, so you were chain smoking as you were typing. But I became horribly addicted to it.”<\/p>\n Recalling the moment that finally made him quit, Richard said it was interviewing Nigella Lawson’s first husband John Diamond, who was a journalist for The Guardian and The Times, who passed away at the age of 47 in 2001.<\/p>\n Richard shared: “He got throat and mouth cancer because of smoking when he was in his late 30s or early 40s – and he was dying – and he was writing a diary about dying for The Guardian.<\/p>\n “It was a tragedy, and yet it was gripping the way he talked about his shortening days and his suffering. And he came on This Morning<\/a> when he probably had about three weeks to live.<\/p>\n “By that stage he had half his tongue cut away, because of the tumours, and he’d had a lot of his oesophagus taken away. He was in a bad way. He was constantly dribbling down one side of his mouth. And he was very hard to understand because of the surgery on his tongue.<\/p>\n “About halfway through this live interview, I said to him something slightly foolish like, ‘John, you\u2019re in this predicament because of smoking’. And he said – and we didn\u2019t get any complaints because you couldn\u2019t really hear the F-word – ‘Of course I f***ing am’.<\/p>\n “I went back to my dressing room, reached up onto the top shelf of my wardrobe and pulled my packet of Benson & Hedges down and looked at it. I took out the four or five that were left and I flushed them down the toilet. I knew that was it – I could not allow myself to end like that, if I could do anything to stop it. And I’ve never had a cigarette since.”<\/p>\n Follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok <\/a>, Snapchat <\/a>, Instagram <\/a>, Twitter <\/a>, Facebook <\/a>, YouTube <\/a>and Threads<\/a><\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/3_EMB-Nigella-Lawson-in-Good-Housekeeping.jpg\")
The late journalist John Diamond, who died from cancer caused by smoking, with wife Nigella Lawson(Image: PA)![\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2_National-Television-Awards-2020-Winners-Room.jpg\")
Richard, 69, with wife Judy, 77 – hasn’t had a cigarette since he was 40 (Image: Dave Benett\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n