Bryony Gordon: From Mad Girl to Sober Royalty
Sober Awkward
Victoria Vanstone
4.8 • 533 Ratings
🗓️ 6 July 2025
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, Hame sits down with one of Britain’s most beloved voices on mental health and addiction — the brilliant, wonderful, and hilarious Bryony Gordon.
A bestselling author, journalist, and mental health champion, Bryony’s career exploded with the release of Mad Girl in 2016, her raw and relatable account of life with OCD. Off the back of its success, she made headlines as the first person to interview Prince Harry about his mental health.
But behind the scenes, as her public profile soared, so too did her battle with addiction.
Now approaching 8 years sober (August 27th!), Bryony opens up about how she turned her life around — with the help of friends, family, rehab, and running. She and Hame also discover some weirdly uncanny similarities, adding a touch of unexpected hilarity to this deeply honest conversation.
We’re beyond thrilled to welcome Bryony to the podcast. Her story is inspiring, unfiltered, and not to be missed.
🎧 Show Notes
💛 Resources & Links
📸 Bryony's Instagram: @bryonygordon
Mental Health Mates website: https://www.mentalhealthmates.co.uk/bryony-gordon/
📘 Victoria’s memoir – Find out more at www.soberawkward.com and find her bestselling
Memoirs ‘Mumming - A Year of Trying and Failing to be a Better Parent’
here https://amzn.asia/d/9n1u5m1 and ‘A Thousand Wasted Sundays’
here - https://amzn.asia/d/iE0Snje
🎧 Listen to more Sober Awkward episodes
🫖 Join The Cuppa Community
Our private, supportive online space for sober folk
📘 Get the Sober Awkward Guide
Our downloadable toolkit for ditching booze the awkward way.
👉 www.soberawkward.com/theguide
📱 Follow us for daily sober fun:
Instagram: @soberawkward
TikTok: @soberawkward
Facebook: Sober Awkward Community for Women
🚨 Helplines & Support
🇦🇺 Australia
– Alcohol & Drug Foundation (ADF) – 1300 85 85 84
– Lifeline – 13 11 14 (24/7 crisis support)
– Hello Sunday Morning / Daybreak App – hellosundaymorning.org
🇬🇧 UK
– Drinkline (NHS) – 0300 123 1110
– Alcoholics Anonymous UK – www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk
🇺🇸 USA
– SAMHSA National Helpline – 1-800-662-HELP (4357)
– AA USA – www.aa.org
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I'm Brianne Gordon and this is Sober Awkward. |
| 0:04.1 | The cattle's boiled, Vic. |
| 0:06.0 | Great, perfect timing. Just a dash of milk for me, please, mate. |
| 0:11.8 | Here you go. Should we get started then? |
| 0:19.7 | Have you ever woken up on a Sunday morning and said, I'm never drinking again, |
| 0:23.7 | and then found yourself waving 50 bucks at a barman by happy hour? |
| 0:27.4 | Are you wondering why everyone else can stop at one, |
| 0:30.2 | while you head to a dodgy after party with a weird bloke called Disco Dave? |
| 0:34.0 | If so, it might be time to take a deeper look at your relationship with your reliable social crutch, alcohol. |
| 0:40.3 | On each episode, we'll investigate our own dysfunctional dealings with booze |
| 0:44.3 | and find out if it's possible to stop this deeply ingrained habit before things get too messy. |
| 0:49.3 | Yep, we're going to open up a shame shed of humiliating drinking stories |
| 0:53.3 | to help you understand why waking up from a booze coma each weekend with a kebab sticking out of your top pocket might actually be negatively impacting your health. |
| 1:02.2 | Hamish and I are here to delve into what it's like being sober. |
| 1:06.1 | An unwanted warts and all look into why giving up those cheeky pints or putting down those mummy wines |
| 1:11.5 | will make you feel happier, help your anxiety and mental health, and turn you into the most |
| 1:16.6 | sparkly authentic version of you. |
| 1:18.8 | Won't that mean I become boring, though, Vic? |
| 1:20.7 | Well, Hamish, we'll just have to wait and see. |
| 1:23.2 | I'm Victoria Vanstone. |
| 1:24.9 | I'm Hamish Adams Cairns. |
| 1:26.5 | And this is sober awkward. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Victoria Vanstone, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Victoria Vanstone and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.