Calum Best: ‘I’m proud to be my dad’s son, but I also had an alcoholic parent’

A lot of piña coladas have gone under the bridge since I first met Calum Best on a beach in Fiji back in 2005, when he was a contestant on ITV’s first-ever Love Island. He was launching what would become a prolific TV career, spanning almost two decades and a mind-boggling 45 reality shows around the world.

‘Do you remember that trip? It was the best!’ he says, as we catch up in a sunny courtyard in Fulham, south-west London, close to his flat. ‘When I got kicked off they asked me if I wanted to stay. I was 24, lying on a beach surrounded by beautiful women, drinking cocktails – hell yes, I was going to stay!’

Best on Love Island in 2006 Credit: Rex

At the time the Californian-born model son of Manchester United legend George Best and former model Angie, was a charismatic, rogue-ish character, with a mischievous glint in his eye.

Our paths continued to cross at various West End nightclubs over the years, as his international playboy persona became headline news. Then earlier this year, on BBC One’s weighty debate show The Big Questions, I saw a familiar face in a smart suit speaking eloquently about the National Association of Children of Alcoholics (Nacoa), the charity of which he’s a patron. Best seemed mature, statesmanlike, and his message about how he was lobbying the Government to give these children more support was powerful.

Best with members of Nacoa at the House of Commons in 2019

Having greeted me warmly, wearing a black T-shirt over his vast Buddha chest tattoo (there are a few more tattoos, and more hair thanks to three hair transplants), and after reminiscing briefly about Love Island, Best turns his attention to the task in hand. The night before we meet, Nacoa learnt that all Government funding of its services is set to be scrapped. Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary Jonathan Ashworth, who, like Best, saw his father die of alcoholism in 2010, had been urging the Government to renew funding after a three-year £6 million package, which Theresa May’s government put in place, ran out at the end of March.

‘I went to the Houses of Parliament and spoke three times about what support was needed, which was a really proud moment for me. I’ve worked with Jon and another MP Liam Byrne, who created Manifesto for Change, and we were hoping the Government was going to agree to more funding. All this work and it’s been axed. I don’t understand why,’ he says, shaking his head in exasperation.

Best wears: ribbed T-shirt, £170, Lemaire (mrporter.com). Cotton Oxford shirt, £59, Cos (cosstores.com). Styling: Anish Patel. Grooming: David Wadlow at Frank. Credit: Kalpesh Lathigra

But Best has been galvanised into action – he wants to replicate what Marcus Rashford did for children’s school meals by calling on the Government to rescind its decision to cancel funding for the 2.6 million children of alcoholics who are in dire need of support services to help them after lockdown.

 Playing football with his father in 1993 Credit: Mirrorpix

‘What Marcus did for kids being fed in the school holidays is such a poignant moment to show that if someone stands up – I’m not saying that’s me,’ he says, ‘but if enough of us use the platforms we have to kick up a fuss with authenticity, then maybe the Government will change its position.

Best with his parents in London in 1984 Credit: Rex

‘There will be hundreds of thousands of children who are going to be traumatised from at-home drinking, and if they don’t get help now could go on to be messed-up adults. We want to prevent that. If I had known there were places I could go to talk about what was happening to me when I was younger, it might have helped me when I was feeling totally lost.’

It is a Hollywood-movie-style reinvention for Best, born in San Jose, California, into a dichotomous relationship between the iconic but self-destructive George Best, whose alcoholism abruptly ended his career, and Angie, a model-turned-fitness instructor to Hollywood stars.

After Angie split from George in 1986, mother and son went to live with one of her clients, the singer/actor Cher, Best’s godmother, at her Malibu mansion. He spent the school holidays either going on the road with Cher, while his mother acted as her personal trainer, or visiting his father back in the UK.

With fellow Love Island winner Bianca Gascoigne in 2006 Credit: Rex

Ironically, perhaps, given his bohemian upbringing, he said he was ‘perfectly sane’ living in LA until he made the decision to move to the UK permanently, when he was 20. ‘It was this country – getting caught up in the nightlife that messed me up,’ he laughs.

Having modelled in LA during his teens, his long-haired look caught the attention of Select Models, who after a few castings in the UK, signed him up. ‘I was 20 and was booked for a Burberry shoot with Mario Testino. My agent at Select took me to this nightclub for an awards ceremony. I loved the attention, but she said, “Do not get caught up in this.” I said, “No, don’t worry, I won’t.” Two years later they sacked me because I got too caught up in the nightlife.’ Tabloid headlines such as ‘Lust Like His Dad’ didn’t do much to help his new career as a model.

‘Facing adversity got me to the place I’m in now,’ he insists. ‘I was young and did some stupid things, but I don’t have any regrets.’

For someone who once sat in Mr Chow’s restaurant on the King’s Road and told his mother that he didn’t think he would live past 30, Best’s milestone 40th birthday in February was a cause for celebration. Though, in keeping with the new, more mature lifestyle, he marked it by cooking himself a steak and watching a film at home on his own.

With his mother Angie and godmother Cher in London in 2019 Credit: EROTEME

‘Who says that to their mum?’ he says. Despite living here for the past 20 years, Best still sounds as Californian as the day he stepped off the plane. ‘She was pretty traumatised by it. But just saying that out loud to her was my first step to turning my life around.’

An only child, Best’s world began to fall apart around the age of 22, as he watched his father’s demise from alcoholism.

Belfast-born George Best was one of the most remarkable footballers of his generation, and together with Denis Law and Bobby Charlton (known as the Holy Trinity), took Manchester United to huge success. After winning the League Championship in 1965 and 1967, it became the first ever English club to win the European Cup in 1968, and the same year Best was named European player of the year. His movie-star good looks saw him dubbed the ‘Fifth Beatle’, as he brought a new glamour to the game, until his champagne playboy lifestyle descended into alcoholism and bankruptcy.

His battle with alcohol abuse was well documented and despite having a liver transplant in 2000, he succumbed to the illness in 2005, aged 59. Over 100,000 people lined the streets for his funeral procession in Belfast, with the service broadcast live on TV.

Calum, then 24, was trying to cope with his grief in public, but spiralled and began drinking every day and dabbling with drugs, while his messy high-profile love life was splashed all over the red tops. His relationships with socialites, pop stars and models – Lindsay Lohan, Sarah Harding and Rachel Hunter to name just a few – provided irresistible tabloid fodder.

In LA with Paris Hilton in 2003 Credit: Getty Images

‘I could never be as good a footballer as my dad, but this was a way I could be like him. I thought it was cool and he would be proud,’ he admits. Despite cashing in on copious reality-TV appearances, a series of bad business decisions caused him to be declared bankrupt in 2013. And every misstep was documented in the press.

‘Every day I read something negative. “George Best’s son, spent all his dad’s money” – no, I had no money.’ The only thing Calum was left by his father was his £75,000 gold World Cup Jean Lassel watch. ‘My phone was hacked, I was called an alcoholic and drug addict by the News of the World – not true. I wish I had got law yers involved, but my reputation was tarnished and I thought, I just need to deal with it. It led to me having no self-belief. It was traumatic.’ In hindsight he knows his behaviour was a reaction to not having dealt with the death of his father. ‘My mum was in America, I had no family. I was feeling alone, so I thought I’ll go and hang out in the nightclubs where there is a lot of glitz and glamour.’

A few weeks after her ex-husband’s death, his devoted mother (who he speaks to every day) moved back to London to help Best get his life back on track. ‘She said you need to sort yourself out and figure out what to do to be a happier version of yourself.’ Best’s past most recently came back to haunt him in his ex-girlfriend Sarah Harding’s autobiography Hear Me Out. The Girls Aloud singer, who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, tells of how she was introduced to cocaine during the two years they dated. But Best tried to stop her. ‘At the time we dated it [cocaine] was pretty much everywhere. I tried to not get her involved,’ he says.

Best with singer Sarah Harding in 2005 Credit: Getty Images

They dated around the time Best’s father died. ‘She was somebody I could lean on – I just didn’t know how to openly express my feelings,’ he recalls, adding that they have remained friends.

Despite appearing on a string of dating shows, Best has been single ‘by choice’ for around three years now. ‘I wanted to focus on getting my finances and health back on track. But I have always wanted to be a dad and now I’m 40 I need to pay that side of my life some attention. I keep saying I’ll meet someone in the gym or Whole Foods, but it hasn’t happened yet,’ he says.

A couple of years ago he declared that if he hadn’t found someone by the time he was 40 he would enlist one of his female friends to help him become a father. ‘ I thought about it, but I want to do it in a loving relationship – I just hope I meet them soon.’

When looking back over some of the worst stories of how George treated his son, you have to keep in mind that it was a different era – alcoholism and mental health just weren’t treated in the manner they are today.

Best was only three weeks old when his father walked out on him and his mother Angie, now 68, for a two-week drinking binge. His mother, keen for him to still have a relationship with his father, was devastated when her 11-year-old son would come home to LA with ‘heartbreaking’ tales of being left in a hotel room on his own all night while his father went out boozing.

Best wears: ribbed T-shirt, £170, Lemaire (mrporter.com). Knitted top, £1,040, trench coat, £3,100, and pleat-front trousers, £950, all Zegna (zegna. com). Sneakers, £205, Grenson (grenson.com) Styling: Anish Patel. Grooming: David Wadlow at Frank Credit: Kalpesh Lathigra

‘I can actually laugh at some of it in hindsight,’ he says.

Like the time, for instance, when 15-year-old Best was told to meet his father at Stringfellows strip club for his 50th birthday, only for him not to turn up. He chuckles, ‘I sat there eating lobster with Peter Stringfellow, watching the dancing girls. I mean, I thought that was pretty cool at the time. But I was 15 – where was my old man?’

The catalyst for eventually dealing with his grief came when he met members of Nacoa, while filming a BBC documentary in 2009 called Brought Up by Booze, and he was invited to become a patron.

‘Meeting Nacoa and speaking to the other kids was a turning point where I thought, “OK, I can mend this. I’ve just got a bad reputation, my mental and physical health isn’t great, and my self-belief is really low. What can I do to help myself? Openly express yourself.” When you talk it out, there is a healing.’ However, when he first spoke up about his troubled relationship with his father in his 2015 autobiography Second Best, and revealed moments including when George physically and verbally attacked him in a drunken stupor, he was brutally shot down – mainly by Manchester United fans, but also by members of his father’s family. ‘They said, “Shut up. Your dad is an icon, you are the son of him, you are blessed, that should be enough.”

‘I am proud to be my dad’s son and I am so proud of his legacy. But I also had an alcoholic parent and at one point it f—ked me up. Our relationship was just about women and football, which was fun, but he was drinking every day and I didn’t know where to turn to and it bubbled up inside. I had anger, resentment.

‘At one point those things fade away. If you openly talk about it you find other people that went through it, so you don’t feel you are alone. That is my biggest message when I’m working with Nacoa in schools and asked to do talks at Premiership football clubs. People say I resonate with the kids, which I find really cool. They can look at me and the other patrons and see we’ve been through it and have come out the other side.

Best speaking on behalf of Nacoa at the House of Commons in 2019 with MP Jonathan Ashworth

‘This is why I want to sing about it from the rooftops, to get funding from the Government.’ He reels off the statistics: there are 2.6 million children of alcoholics in the UK; the calls to Nacoa – the only dedicated helpline of its kind in the UK – have quadrupled for 12 to 28-year-olds seeking help during lockdown, with calls across the whole year increasing by 38 per cent. The Office for National Statistics backs up this devastating trajectory, reporting a 16 per cent increase of deaths related to ‘alcohol-specific causes’ year-on-year since lockdown came into place – with the alcohol-specific death rate in England and Wales between January and March 2021 reaching its highest levels since 2001.

‘Statistics show at-home drinking has gone up. We know emergency calls have gone up during the pandemic, so the impact on kids who were dealing with alcoholic parents in the first place now has got to be tenfold during lockdown,’ he says.

While he is cautious not to take on the role of counsellor, once in a while a message slips into his inbox that he finds impossible to ignore. ‘There was a 10-year-old boy and he said ,“I saw you speaking the other day about having alcohol in the family. My dad drinks too much, I don’t know what to do,”’ he says.

‘I thought, “He’s a young lad, is it really my place to get involved?” But I have to. So I replied, “Find somebody you trust or someone you like, whether it is a family member or your school, and tell them.” A month later he got back to me and said, “I explained to my dad’s brother how I felt and now my dad comes home from the pub more often.” It is only a small thing, but that is probably happening a lot.’

On social media, Best extols the virtues of how making little changes in your life can make a big impact. He exercises every day – ‘at 40 I feel incredible’ – doing circuit training or boxing for his mental health; he meditates to help with anxiety, eats organic food and posts positive affirmations, alongside herograms to his father.

‘I preach about this stuff because it worked for me and it might just work for someone else. My life has completely 180’d and I’ve found that through your struggle you can find your passion, and your purpose and you can change your life around.’

There was a moment a couple of years ago when Best realised he was finally at peace with his father. ‘I posted something on Instagram and I sat there and thought, “I’m not mad, I’m not angry, I’m not confused, I am at peace. I love my dad to bits.” I get goosebumps thinking about it.’

Now a typical day for Best starts at 6am as he heads to the gym, before meetings with colleagues at one of his wellness businesses – health-food brand Poke the Bear, which he successfully launched over lockdown with his best friend Fraser Carruthers, his Aura by Best crystal brand, which channels his spiritual side, and a CBD-oil business he is launching with his mother.

And as part of his self-development, during lockdown he studied for a mindfulness and life coaching diploma to help with his charity work with Nacoa. He adds: ‘I might be late blooming, but I am coming into my own now more than ever. I am excited for the next 10 years.’

Find out more: nacoa.org.uk