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'I'm not drunk, I'm eccentric': Tara Palmer-Tomkinson defends her rambling radio interview

By Sara Nathan
Updated: 04:09 EST, 6 March 2012

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She is a self-confessed ‘eccentric’ who struggled to conquer her drug addiction.

And yesterday, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson sparked fresh fears for her health during a radio interview where listeners accused her of sounding ‘drunk’ and ‘wasted’.

The 40-year-old socialite, who conquered a cocaine addiction, appeared to slur her words during an interview on Radio 5 Live with presenter Richard Bacon.

'I'm eccentric': Tara Palmer-Tomkinson has defended herself after a bizarre radio interview which sparked concern and amusement with listeners

Such was the worry for the slender brunette that Mr Bacon, 36, was forced to ask the former It-Girl ‘Are you all right?’.

Responding to tweets from listeners who worried that she had been drinking, Miss Palmer-Tomkinson – who admitted ‘I can’t ever say I’m past my problems’ – insisted: ‘I haven’t had anything to drink today, or yesterday, or the day before.’

As she attempted to promote her new novel, Infidelity, Miss Palmer-Tomkinson, who declared she was merely sipping on a strawberry smoothie ‘with a little bit of banana’, seemed on the edge.

Listener Margo Milne tweeted: ‘car crash radio right now...’ while Tim White added: ‘wow, listen to BBC 5 Live, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson sounds well wasted’.

Elliot Smith wrote: ‘Anyone listening to Tara Palmer-Tomkinson on 5Live? She sounds leathered?’. Concerned Prakash Kachhala tweeted: ‘Is she ok? She sounds drunk/hungover!!’

'Car crash radio': The 40-year-old socialite appeared to slur her words during an interview on Radio 5 to promote her new novel

'Car crash radio': The 40-year-old socialite, pictured yesterday, appeared to slur her words during an interview on Radio 5 to promote her new novel

Miss Palmer-Tomkinson said: ‘I do get rambling on…I apologise if that’s the way it comes across.

‘I must admit I come across as quite eccentric, I’m mis-portrayed and mis-understood. People do seem to have this idea of me…’

Confessing she had been told by her press advisor during a break in the interview to ‘calm down’, the socialite told how she found it ‘very difficult to sit still’.

A close friend of Princes William and Harry, Miss Palmer-Tomkinson, whose parents Patti and Charles are best friends with Prince Charles, said she had never wanted to live in the spotlight.

Miss Palmer-Tomkinson, who currently lives with her friend, model Bobby Sabel, said: ‘I worked hard to recover from something which nearly took my life away from me – addiction - I did the meetings, didn’t drink for eight or nine years…’

Concern: Asked by radio host Richard Bacon if she was alright, Tara, pictured in October, replied ¿I haven¿t had anything to drink today, or yesterday, or the day before¿

Concern: Asked by radio host Richard Bacon if she was alright, Tara, pictured in July, replied ¿I haven¿t had anything to drink today, or yesterday, or the day before¿

Concern: Asked by host Richard Bacon if she was all right, Tara, pictured in July, replied ‘I haven’t had anything to drink today, or yesterday, or the day before’

Although she said she now drinks, she insisted that she did not have a drinking problem, adding: ‘I don’t like alcohol enough, I love going home for one glass of wine with my friend.’

But she admitted: ‘I can’t ever say I’m past my problems - that’s not what I’m taught to do, I have to live "today I’m okay", that’s the way my rehab taught me.

‘I’ve done really well…I feel very ashamed of how I was when I was using drugs.

‘And I feel horrid of what it did to us all as a family, I love my family and my friends and they know me and they know ‘I'm a bit mad, and they know I’m absolutely all right.

‘The reason I used to use because all that I was was this rich kid, I hadn’t ever wanted to be that.’

'I find it hard to sit still': Tara, who has conquered cocaine addiction, explained that she 'comes across as quite eccentric'

'I find it hard to sit still': Tara, who has conquered cocaine addiction, explained that she does 'come across as quite eccentric'

Although Miss Palmer-Tomkinson admitted that she ‘didn’t help myself’, she said: ‘I was created into an It girl by the editor of a magazine. I was 21 years old and I thought ‘this is great, everyone wants me’.

After going to rehab for cocaine addiction in 1999 and a much-publicised series of operations to repair her nose after her septum collapsed, Miss Palmer-Tomkinson has worked hard to get her life back together again.

She told Mr Bacon: ‘I wanted to be a vet or an architect, or win the Grand National, I had absolutely no intention of this. I did get caught up in a candy store, but underneath it all I just felt so unworthy.’

She added that she was ‘not as normal as a normal person’, saying: ‘I got brought up in quite an eccentric way.

‘People have always said to me since I was about six, ‘you’re as mad as a box of frogs’.

‘I suppose I do feel sad when people say and think ‘God, has she been drinking?’… It concerns me people are saying ‘she’s drunk’.

‘It’s horrible, but you just have to be yourself in life. I should try and calm down.’

Mr Bacon told her: ‘Thanks for being so very open with us'.