These days, it's not at all unusual for stars, pro athletes, and even well-known political figures to open up about their personal battles with all kinds of issues. They can include mental health problems, challenging medical diagnoses, substance abuse, and messy, drawn-out divorces. However, that was not typical years ago. Entertainers often had to conceal their private struggles from the public to preserve their idealized image. It was probably very stressful to have to lead a sanitized existence or face losing your popularity. Singer Lulu, who achieved fame in the 1960s with songs like the theme from the film To Sir With Love, is now telling all about her past alcoholism. She felt compelled to hide it back in the day. Lulu is at last unburdening herself of that formerly closely-held secret.
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"I'm Not Ashamed"
In a September 18 interview with The I Paper, Lulu (her actual name is Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie) was candid about her earlier drinking issues. At 77, she said to the outlet, "Now that I've come out and been vocal about being an alcoholic, I'm not proud of it, but I'm not ashamed. Because I was ashamed. And of past things with my family."
The singer went to an Arizona treatment center to seek help and become sober thirteen years ago. Lulu also shared her alcoholism in a book published last year titled If Only You Knew. per People.
She Says She Felt Obliged To Be "Perfect"
Lulu acknowledged, "I lived in terror of not being perfect. I look at old film with from years ago and think, 'the poor wee thing doesn't know who she is. And because of my insecurities... When you come from an alcoholic, or dysfunctional, family you're on high alert all the time."
She went on, "I was trying to find out who I was. Eventually, you've got to face the reality of life. I had a lot of things I had to face up to. It was so painful, I had to drink more."
She confided to the BBC that she kept her alcoholism to herself so as not to disrupt her "squeaky clean" image.
"It's a Family Illness"
Lulu went into more detail about her circumstances when she spoke to The Times of London in 2025. "It's a family illness. The gene is there. For me, it had been controllable until I got into my sixties. After I became menopausal, with both my parents gone, the empty nest, looking around and seeing all the young kids in the music industry, I became more and more reliant on it and so it just got worse. For many years, and I can't say how many, I had not been happy with the way I felt, not at all happy and [yet] unable to ask for help."
