Coronation Street actress Sue Cleaver says she no longer has “any fear around alcohol” and believes she isn’t dependent on it.

Cleaver is best known for playing the outspoken Eileen Grimshaw on the ITV soap since 2000 and has previously been outspoken about the health benefits of cutting down on her wine consumption and its impact on her weight loss.

She is Prima’s November issue cover star and she spoke to the magazine about her drink intake.

“I don’t have any fear around alcohol any more, and that is really freeing,” she said.

“I never imagined getting to that state. I thought I had a dependency. I thought I couldn’t get by without having a glass of wine at night. I thought life wouldn’t be great without a glass of wine.

“It would be absolutely great without wine. I just thought it wouldn’t. It’s the thinking around it that is the problem.”

Speaking to Prima, the 61-year-old also reflected on her age, saying: “There are so many people my age who I speak to that are depressed about reaching 60. You feel like this is the end of the line, that everything goes down from here.

“I absolutely don’t feel that way. I just feel like the world really is my oyster now, and there’s so much available out there. There’s so much that you can do.”

She also said she “really struggled with my identity” when she was younger, as she was adopted.

Cleaver added: “My family are my family, my mum is my mum, whether the DNA is involved or not. They are such a big part of me.

“But a lot of adopted children have this sense that something is a little bit different.”

You can read the full interview in Prima’s November issue which will be on sale from Wednesday.

During her stint on ITV’s I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! in 2022, the same series as former health secretary Matt Hancock, Cleaver told how she had reconciled with her birth mother.

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She has also shared the story in her new memoir, A Work in Progress, which will become available to buy on September 26, before then it can be pre-ordered.

Cleaver also said her family is “bizarrely interconnected” to other Coronation Street stars.

She said Helen Worth, who plays Gail Platt, is godmother to one of her half-sisters, and the other half-sister’s husband, John Bowe, appeared on the cobbles as Duggie Ferguson.