I’m Sober And My Partner Is Not. Here’s How We Make It Work.

COMMUNICATION & UNDERSTANDING –

July 25, 2023 – “There’s been times where he’s drank too much and annoyed me,” Banks said of Tony. “But it happens so, so rarely that it tends to be more comical than annoying to me.”

Stewart Lee, 41, who has been sober for 10 years and written a memoir about his recovery journey, has been in a relationship for about a year with his partner, Rosie Leigh, 32. She described her own relationship to alcohol: “I have very good control over the amount I drink. I’ll have a glass of wine — I’ll open a bottle, have a glass and then the next day just chuck the rest away because I don’t want it. I don’t drink to get drunk.”

“That feeling when you’re sort of out of control — I don’t like that. But I do like to have a drink,” she told HuffPost.

Lee jokingly called this mindset “weird” to him, but the unimportance that alcohol has in Leigh’s life, and her willingness to take it or leave it, is one factor that helps their relationship work.

Leigh says that being in a relationship with Lee leads her to drink less, and she sees that as a positive overall. “If he did drink, I think potentially we would be drinking a lot more. I would be drinking a lot more, because, you know, I’m easily encouraged.” Lee’s influence has led to different shared activities. “Instead we get up at like half past 5 in the morning to go to the gym,” she said.