Loui Fish, the controversial ex-wife to former soccer ace Mark Fish, is on a nationwide tour to promote the launch of her tell-all book, ‘Walking in my Choos’.

We caught up with the contentious model and presenter to find out what’s really going on in her life.

Congratulations on the book! What sort of response have you been getting so far?

I’m getting an awesome response! I’m an open book and I always wear my heart on my sleeve.  I don’t know if that’s always a good thing. What’s so surprising is that my followers are a mixture of gay people and older Afrikaans people who used to like Tongelong. There are also actually a lot of straight men who are coming to the launches. They’re not trying to date me – they’re actually there for advice so I’m thinking about having a workshop for divorced people. You actually don’t realise the pain men go through during a divorce.

Were you dealing with a lot of emotion during the writing process?

It was tough.  I think the toughest bit was coming out with the drug story. We all have our little secrets but it’s unusual for someone in the public eye to come out and admit to something like that. All I can say is that I’m healed. It was a very therapeutic yet emotional journey. There were certain issues I thought I’d dealt with but, while I was writing the story, I had to deal with them all over again. I can now honestly say that I’m over everything.  I finally got my closure.

Would you like to talk about the drug usage?

You know, it’s been widely documented and I don’t want people to just focus on that. I’d rather have people buy the book if they want to and read about it. The drugs were something that happened in the 90’s and they are obviously something I’m not proud of. I’m getting a lot of stick from Mark about it though. He keeps saying that I’ve got the kids to think about. All I can say is that I’ve lived and I’ve learnt. If my kids ever got involved in that sort of thing I’d be able to spot it from a mile away and sort it out.

James Small and Mark were petrified that it would all come out. The reason I decided to tell the story is because I really didn’t want some newspaper finding out about it and making it seem ten times worse than it really was. The book reveals the truth behind the last 16 years of my life. It focuses on every headline and every story that’s ever been in the media that loves to hate me.

Have Mark Fish and James Small denied the drug abuse allegations you make in your book?

Well would you admit to all these things if you were a Springbok rugby hero? I could have left it all out quite easily. I knew I was going to get stick for it but it’s my life story too. James introduced me to cocaine and Mark and I used it together. I can’t change that fact.

END OF PART 1 
Stay tuned to ZAlebs for Part 2 of Loui’s interview… 

By Lauren Lee