Paul Sinha has revealed his biggest regret in his past gambling addiction, speaking of how debilitating his fixation on betting became in his late teens. Taking to Kate Thornton’s White Win Question Time podcast, the 53-year-old recalled of his past struggles, citing how he wished he had never set foot in a betting shop.

The Sinha-man, said: “When people say, ‘what would you say to your 16-year-old self?’, what I would say is never, ever, ever walk into a betting shop in your life, because that’s the one avenue of error where I don’t think any positivity came out of it at all, just a lot of financial losses.

“So, it’s not that every bad event has a sliding doors silver lining, it’s just most of them do.”

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The Mirror reports that Paul also candidly shared the ways that he deals with his vice, and revealed that he regularly thinks about his past problem ‘a lot’ as it was a massive part of his life. He admitted: “At its worst I was very bad indeed.”

The ITV star was eventually able to bury his demons, crediting his mobile phone for helping him kick the habit once and for all. He added: “Now, I can walk past a betting shop and not even have the slightest inclination to walk in,” explaining that he’s: “Not bored anymore,” through playing on his phone.

He told Kate: “I don’t need to gamble to get my high,” detailing how he had access to the ‘whole world’ in his hands. Paul, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2019, also discussed his sexuality during the chat – telling how he was forced to come out to his mam after a friend played a prank on him.

During his studies at medical school, a friend drunkenly phoned Paul’s mother at a house party, outing the ITV brainbox. He explained: “I came out to my mum because somebody at a house party at our house rang my mum from our house phone and said, ‘your son’s gay’ and put the phone down.”

He added that he can ‘laugh about’ the situation now.