Aussie comedian admits he was drinking as many as 15 beers a day at home alone before quitting booze in February: ‘I thought I would be dead’

Beloved Australian comedian Ash Wicks has revealed he was drinking up to 15 beers a day alone at home before making the decision to quit alcohol for good.

The father admitted drinking had become a coping mechanism during the early years of having children, helping him suppress difficult thoughts and manage feelings of being overwhelmed.

Now more than 230 days sober, Wicks told the Life Uncut podcast – hosted by Brittany Hockley and Laura Byrne – there was a time when he couldn’t imagine reaching the milestone.

‘I would have thought that I would be dead before this day. There were times where I thought that was it,’ he said.

Wicks said he had never had a healthy relationship with alcohol, but by the end of 2025, the effort of constantly thinking about and attempting to control his drinking had become exhausting.

‘I wasn’t drinking for fun. I was drinking 12, 15 beers a day at home alone for no reason,’ he said.

‘I could see that my family was exhausted about it.’

Wicks initially intended to take a break from alcohol after a hectic period of travelling and working in environments where drinking was commonplace. But after a month sober, he began to recognise how profoundly alcohol had been affecting his life.

‘You don’t realise how toxic something is the closer you are to it,’ he said.

‘Then when you take a step back and you start to come away from it, you realise how toxic I was and that I wasn’t giving my family 100 per cent of myself.’

‘I’m my son’s hero’ 

Wicks became emotional discussing how his drinking may have affected his son Oscar.

‘I’m his f***ing hero, right? And he’s got to watch his hero try and get himself through life,’ he said.

The realisation became even more confronting after Wicks began discussing his sobriety publicly and received an email from someone who had grown up with an alcoholic father.

The writer told him their father had since died, but they had spent years feeling as though they weren’t ‘good enough’ for him to stop drinking. The message stayed with Wicks for two months before he felt able to discuss it.

‘I don’t want my kids to think that they weren’t good enough for me to change something about me to help everyone,’ he said.

Giving up drinking wasn’t simply about feeling healthier or removing a bad habit. Wicks had to confront how deeply alcohol had become embedded in his identity and everyday life.

‘It felt like my best friend just died’

Wicks had been drinking since he was 14 and said alcohol had accompanied almost every kind of experience in the decades since.

‘Any inconvenience, I would drink. Any bad day, I’d drink. Any celebration, I’d drink. Any minor win, I would drink,’ he said.

His brain had come to treat drinking as a reward, which made accepting a future without alcohol unexpectedly emotional.

‘I relied on it so much and used it so much. It was literally like it was my best friend,’ he said.

‘It felt like my best friend just died. That’s how I felt.’

Wicks said he ‘mourned’ the loss before gradually becoming more comfortable with his new life.

‘I thought I would never be here, that I would be long gone before this day came,’ he said.

‘I was never in control’

Looking back, Wicks said he had long suspected his relationship with alcohol was problematic, but convinced himself he remained in control.

Heavy drinking had also been normalised in his family. Wicks said his grandfather drank as many as 30 schooners a day and lived until he was 86.

‘The last thing he said to me was, “Can you get us a schooner?” And I never saw him again,’ he said.

Growing up around that behaviour shaped what Wicks understood to be normal.

He described how being a heavy drinker could even become part of someone’s identity, particularly among young men.

‘It’s a habit as well but it’s a personality trait,’ he said.

‘It’s like, “Oh, that’s Uncle Gary. He’s a big drinker. He’s always drunk.” And in your teen and early 20 years, you’re proud of that.’

Wicks had assumed his grandfather’s drinking was simply accepted by those around him. That changed recently when he drove his 89-year-old grandmother home and told her about his own decision to stop drinking.

She surprised him by revealing how she had really felt about her husband’s drinking throughout their decades-long marriage.

‘I wish he didn’t drink,’ she told him.

‘I grew up my whole life not knowing that and thinking this is just normal, but it’s really not,’ Wicks said.

Sobriety changed his 16-year relationship 

The early months weren’t entirely smooth. Wicks joked that his cravings shifted dramatically towards sugar, with Oreos becoming his temporary vice.

At one point he asked his partner April to buy him eight packets, leaving the cashier convinced there must have been a sale.

‘The lady goes, “Oh, are these on special?”‘ he recalled.

The humorous moment reflected a more complicated adjustment as Wicks learnt to navigate daily life without something he had relied on since adolescence.

But the effect on his home life has been profound.

Wicks and April have been together for 16 years, and he now believes their relationship is stronger than it has ever been.

‘My relationship with April is probably the best we’ve ever been,’ he said.

What started as an attempt to take a break has ultimately forced Wicks to reconsider a relationship with alcohol that had shaped much of his life.

If you or someone you know needs support, Counselling Online is a free and confidential service that provides 24/7 support to people across Australia affected by alcohol or drug use.