British actor Ray Winstone has revealed he suffered with agonising shingles for three months and was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, but says he now feels “the best I’ve felt for many years” after making changes to his lifestyle.
The 69-year-old, known for films including Scum, Nil By Mouth and Sexy Beast, is back on screen next month in the second series of gangster drama The Gentlemen on Netflix.
Shingles and diabetes diagnosis
Speaking about his recent health struggles, Winstone said: “I had shingles in November. Yeah, and it took me till February to get over that. Yeah, really is horrible. I had to stop training for a little while because I go for walks and all that, and now I’m just getting back into it.”
He added: “But now I’m kind of feeling probably the best I’ve felt for many years.”
Winstone has cut out drinking and tries to watch what he eats after his diabetes diagnosis, but admits he occasionally falls off the wagon when it comes to his sweet tooth.
Cutting out sugar
Speaking on the Dish podcast, he explained: “I got diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. So that was one of the reasons I stopped drinking, you know, made up my mind I was going to do that.
“Having said that I thought, I eat a lot of sugar, you know, I do. It’s in drinks, it’s in Coca-Cola, it’s in everything. So, I stopped it, and within 5 months I didn’t have type 2 no more.
“But I’ll have in the fridge caramel ice cream, salted caramel ice cream. And every now and then, all right, because I’ve been a good boy, I’ve done everything the right way, I’ll get a dish, I’ll get a bowl and I’ll put me caramel ice cream in loads of it. With a load of dribble of honey over. Or treacle and nuts”.
Life in Sicily
When he is not making films or doing TV work, Winstone is spending more and more time living in Sicily. Born in Hackney, he insists one of the reasons for staying there more and more is it reminds him of London when he was growing up.
The West Ham fan, who has been married to wife Elaine for 46 years, said: “There’s some sort of reality and sort of earthiness about the place, and I kind of felt at home.
“And going to the towns, you know, kids just running about, it was like London was, or the East End was 40 years ago, in a way. So maybe as I’ve got older, you kind of yearn for that kind of- community. Kind of feel again, you know. And so, for me, that was, that was it.”
