Farrell: 'Drinking nearly killed me'

Rex Features

Colin Farrell thinks that he would have died if he had not quit drinking.

The 32-year-old actor commented that he developed a taste for alcohol in his early teens to the extent that he was becoming ill.

"I'd been drinking since I was 14. I was pretty sick. At the beginning of recovery I found it really hard.

"For me there was no choice. It was tough but I was dying. I was struggling not to have a complete meltdown. I was just gone. I'm glad I'm out of that cycle, I'm very lucky," he said.

It was rumoured last month that Farrell is to abandon his Catholic faith and turn to Judaism.