Denise Welch was "extremely proud" when Matty Healy confided in her about his heroin addiction.
The 60-year-old actress was visiting her son – the eldest of her two children with first husband Tim Healy – while his band The 1975 were touring in America last year, and she felt "touched" when he told her about his struggles and plans to go into rehab.
She said: "Last year he realised he was in trouble and I wasn’t seeing a great deal of him because he was on a world tour. Although success for The 1975 has been wonderful, its been hard for me because I felt I’ve lost my son.
"I went to Los Angeles to visit him and he told me last year he was gonig to take himself to rehab and he needed help with addiction.
"It was hard but I was thrilled and touched he told me, I was extremely proud he told me."
Though the 29-year-old rocker has publicly apologised to his mother for his addiction and told the ‘Loose Women’ star not to blame herself, she admitted she can’t help but feel responsible because her own wild past gave Matty a very different upbringing to the one her other son, 17-year-old Louis, has had with her and her second husband Lincoln Townley.
Speaking on ‘Loose Women’, she said: "Because I’ve had issues over the years, even though I didn’t talk about them much, my life was spiralling out of control.
"Louis has pretty much grown up in a sober household but I do have shame and guilt with regards to some of the things Matt had to see.
"I wasn’t staggering round the house with a vodka bottle, but if I could redo parts of his childhood, I would do that…"
However, Denise admits there are some positive aspects to the upbringing she and Tim gave Matty.
She added: "I have a tendency to feel a lot of guilt. If his upbringing hadn’t been a little rock and roll, he wouldn’t be in the 1975.
"If he’d been the product of a life with Lincoln and I, he wouldn’t have been in the band because were in bed with a crumpet and the TV by half 9."
The former ‘Coronation Street’ star is now looking forward to being reunited with her "wonderful" son later this week.
She said: "I’m incredibly proud, he’s completely clean, he’s a wonderful young man, wonderful son and wonderful brother and he’s coming back from LA this week and I cant wait to see him."
Denise Welch proud of Matty Healy’s honesty
