Divorcee warns about the dangers of 'wine o'clock' admitting she used to down TWO BOTTLES a night as it was so easy to get carried away drinking at home

A woman who battled alcohol addiction for 40 years has admitted how easily she used to find it to drink two bottles of wine a night without realising how much she was consuming.

Divorcee Hazel Worrall-Jones, 56, who lives in St Albans, said most people didn't know she had a drinking problem as she held down a job for a bank and 'wasn't party girl out drinking'.

She told Lorraine today on her ITV show: 'I was drinking through loneliness, boredom and things that had happened in my life to blot it out.

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Hazel Worrall-Jones revealed on today's Lorraine how she would drink two bottles of wine a night

Dr Hilary Jones said the recommended daily intake for women is a 175ml glass of wine as displayed

'I would mostly drink at home. At its worse I would easily have two bottles of wine in the evening. 

'The first one I would open about 5pm, that was my "wine o'clock" when it felt OK to do it at that time as I started to cook dinner. That first bottle would disappear and not even touch the sides. When you are drinking as you're cooking it is almost like it doesn't count.

'Then you have another bottle of the wine with the meal and think that was nice, I will have another glass.'

Hazel shared her story during Alcohol Awareness Week as there are a growing number of women across the UK embracing the 'wine o'clock' culture she referred to at home and drinking to excess.

Thirty-four per cent of British women are now classed as high risk drinkers, with one in six developing a health problem due to drinking too much. 

Like Hazel, many of them are unaware of just how many units they are consuming a night.

Dr Hilary Jones, who appeared on Lorraine with Hazel, said the daily recommended intake for women is two units a day - found in one 175ml glass of wine.

But he cautioned: 'There isn't really safe limit, it is a toxin.' 

Hazel previously revealed to You magazine how she had her first taste of alcohol when she was 14 and thought having a gin and tonic made her sophisticated. 

Hazel admits her problem got out of control as she lost track of how much she was drinking as she had glasses of wine while she cooked and another bottle over dinner

Hazel told Lorraine how she used to start drinking around 5 o'clock as that seemed an acceptable time

Thirty-four per cent of British women are now classed as high risk drinkers (posed by model)

She continued to drink in her twenties as she shared a flat with friends and then met her husband Mike.

They married when she was 28 and moved to a cottage in Stratford-upon-Avon but as he worked away during the week, she often found herself drinking alone in the evenings - a habit it would take her decades to break.

She said: 'Alone in our beautiful cottage, I could easily drink a bottle of wine most nights.

'When Mike came home we'd celebrate and get through double that each. His friend owned a chain of wine stores and used to give us cases of fine wine, which we'd polish off together over the weekend.'

The couple drifted apart and by the time Hazel was 34, she was single again. She continued to drink as he made a fresh start in St Albans.

She said: 'I saved up and bought a flat, but paying the mortgage meant I couldn't afford to go out.

'Boredom and loneliness brought my old drinking patterns back - a bottle of wine most nights, two at weekends.'

When she lost her mother in 2006, her drinking accelerated again as she drank as a way to cope with her grief.

By the time she was in her fifties, she knew her problem had gone too far and she hated herself for her reliance on alcohol.  

She told Lorraine: 'I used to wake up in the night and just cry. I was never aggressive with it or falling over but it was horrible the way I treated myself for doing it. I hated it and I knew I had to get help to stop. I didn't want to cut it down I wanted to stop. 

'I thought at my age, it is just not a good look. I am slobbering about drinking glasses of wine and not really knowing why, it was just blotting things out.'

After a stint at rehab didn't work, she then managed to kick the habit thanks to the Harrogate Sanctuary, which offers cognitive behavioural therapy to women over 30 with drinking issues. It's run by a counsellor, Sarah, who has overcome a drink problem herself.

Speaking of how the treatment worked to You, Hazel said: 'When I met Sarah, I thought, "I can'’t disappoint this woman. She thinks I'’m worth saving." What worked for me was that I could contact her at any time, even late at night.

'When I was having a difficult day, trying to avoid the wine aisle in the supermarket, she'd tell me to "see the bottles as the enemy" and think, "What you do to people is disgusting".'

'She also got me to "play the movie to the end" and imagine the consequences for me if I started drinking again.

'After two weeks, I knew I was going to beat it. I'd found someone who understood. I'd become adept at hiding my drinking over the years, because I was never drunk in public.

'When I told my friends I’d stopped drinking, most of them said, "but you were fine!" Sarah's approach was perfect for me because I didn't want to focus on my past - I wanted to move on and become a better person.'

Now Hazel doesn't drink and she said she has never felt better. She said she has lost weight as she no longer has 'wine girth' around her waist. 

Dr Hilary said weightloss is one of the many benefits of cutting down on alcohol.

He added: 'There are lots of advances, you will sleep better, lose weight, have more energy.'