Presenter story - JImmy Thistle chats to Janey Lee GracePresenter story - JImmy Thistle chats to Janey Lee Grace
Alcohol Free Life - Janey Lee Grace
Janey Lee Grace talks with Jimmy Thistle about her shift from high-profile media work and quiet grey‑area drinking to a joyful, holistic alcohol-free life. Their chat touches on shame, early sobriety struggles, and building supportive communities and coaching careers around recovery.
1:20:44•25 Sept 2026
From Wham! To Holistic Sobriety: Janey Lee Grace on Finding Freedom
Episode Overview
- You don’t have to hit so‑called rock bottom before changing your relationship with alcohol.
- Focusing on what you’re gaining, rather than what you’re ‘giving up’, makes sobriety feel positive and sustainable.
- Connection with others who understand alcohol recovery is far more helpful than keeping your struggle secret.
- Nutrition, supplements and broader wellbeing practices can ease early sobriety and support long-term change.
- Sobriety can become a new purpose, including training as a sober coach to help others find freedom.
“Nobody ever said, have you actually considered that life is so much better without?”
Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This replay of the After Hours podcast brings coach and broadcaster Janey Lee Grace to the centre stage, as she swaps roles and becomes the interviewee with host Jimmy Thistle. You’ll hear Janey chart her path from backing vocalist with Wham! and a top‑10 hit in the rave era, through 23 years at BBC Radio 2, to becoming what she jokingly calls the “queen of holistic living”.
All the while, alcohol sat in the background as a secret “treat” that didn’t match her green, natural lifestyle brand. She shares how a chance pre‑Christmas reading of Claire Pooley’s *The Sober Diaries* sparked her final quit attempt in January 2018. The conversation is warm and funny, but also pretty straight-talking.
Janey recalls the “doorknob moment” at her GP, where she finally said, “I’m really worried about my drinking” and was told to simply have an alcohol-free day and a glass of water in between – advice that kept her stuck for years. She and Jimmy talk frankly about grey‑area drinking, mum‑wine culture, blackouts, and why the idea of “giving up” alcohol is so misleading when life is actually better without it.
For anyone sober curious or already alcohol‑free, there’s plenty of practical chat: early withdrawal symptoms, the importance of nutrition and supplements, the power of connection, and how communities like The Sober Club support both day‑one beginners and long‑term sober folk. Janey also describes turning sobriety into a new purpose through holistic sober coach training and why, for her, the single word that sums up life now is “freedom”.
If you’re wondering whether changing your relationship with alcohol could actually make you happier, this conversation might be exactly what you need to hear.
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