The ex-wife of footballer George Best has recalled the "circus" surrounding his alcoholism amid rising concerns for Paul Gascoigne's health.
Alex Best, speaking on GMTV, said fans would flock to pubs where her ex-husband had been seen. She said: "People used to come for miles to watch him drink, it was a kind of circus."
The model said well-meaning fans would buy the troubled star drinks without realising they were adding to his problems.
She said: "It's terrible to watch your loved ones go through this but at the same time, what can you do? Alcoholics are the most lovely, lovely people and it's terrible when you see the lovely side of them but also the terrible side and you just try and help them."
She said friends and family became "the enemy" to Best, because they were trying to stop him drinking. And she said of Gascoigne: "Everyone's got to support him, everyone's got to rally round him because he can't do it himself."
Gascoigne, 41, was released from hospital on Monday after being sectioned under the Mental Health Act for the second time this year. Later that day police were called to a hairdresser on Kensington Church Street, west London, because he was "feeling unwell". He then voluntarily went to hospital.
Gascoigne was previously sectioned in February after an incident at a Tyneside hotel.
On Tuesday night the troubled ex-footballer's sister Anna said she fears for her brother's life.
Miss Gascoigne said the ex-England player needs professional help and complained that hospitals are only able to treat him as a "drunk person" rather than dealing with the "very dangerous" combination of depression and addiction.
"He's been drinking, I believe, to escape, to get away and it's been a vicious circle," she told ITV News.
