It may be five o’clock in the morning in Los Angeles, but despite having just woken up from her sleep, Denise Welch sounds upbeat.

The Durham-born actress, best known for playing feisty barmaid Natalie in Coronation Street and now being a presenter on Loose Women, is in California for a week, filming a “Thelma and Louise-style travel log” with GMTV’s Carla Romano.

Her timely break comes the same week in which revelations about her personal life, particularly her battle with drink and drugs, have hit the headlines, following the serialisation of her biography, Pulling Myself Together, in a tabloid newspaper.

“This week has selfishly been a good week for me to be away. Me being away lets me escape the storm a bit,” she admits. “But this trip was planned for Easter but unfortunately I had visa problems, then airline problems due to the volcanic ash cloud.”

Pulling Myself Together, penned by Welch herself, not only documents her struggles with alcohol and drugs, but also her post-natal depression.

“They’ve asked me before over the years and the time has just never been right,” she says.

“I can’t deny money wasn’t a feature – anybody’s lying when they say it’s not. But really I just thought, I have had many twists and turns in my life – some good and some not-so-good – and I’m going to tell it how it was rather than have people speculate about how it was.”

It was important for Welch that her family – actor husband Tim Healy and their two sons, 21-year-old Matthew and Louis, eight – backed her fully, despite some of the more salacious episodes.

She comes clean about the affair that almost ruined her 21-year marriage to Healy, and is open about the debilitating depression that left her, at times, suicidal.

“There was no way that I could have done this book without my family’s support because I’m so close to my family,” she says.

“Tim knows these stories and I told him that I was going to put them in, and he was absolutely fine about it. He’s read it and he’s completely supportive.”

Welch, who turns 52 on May 22, gave her family notice about the spotlight that could come their way in coming weeks.

Her lowest point came when she snorted cocaine in between filming scenes on Coronation Street.

“I’ve had many, many dark times over the last 20 years caused by my illness. I had some brilliant times on Corrie, but when I was ill, it would make them some of my darkest days. I was handling my illness so badly at the time.

“I was somebody who was desperate and I resorted to that to help get me through, and it made it worse.”

Being a consummate actress and one of the most recognisable faces on British TV, having had successful roles in Waterloo Road, Soldier Soldier and of course, Coronation Street, makes her concerned about the backlash she could face from the industry.

“Yes of course, sometimes you think, ‘What have I done?’ But the fact is, I’ve done it and I hope when people read the book, they will have a greater understanding of me,” she says.

Welch’s saviour came in the form of Prof Studd, who diagnosed the cause of her depression and gave her hormone treatment.

She has also cut back on drinking and stopped the drug-taking in a bid to prevent further ‘bad days’.

“I want to stay well. I don’t have complete control over my condition.

“I can go to bed perfectly normal and wake up with my illness," she explains.

* Pulling Myself Together by Denise Welch is published by Sidgwick and Jackson in hardback and is priced £16.99.