Jackie Gillies Weighs In On Her Husband Ben’s Drink-Driving Case; Says “He Learned A Significant Lesson”

Real Housewives of Melbourne star Jackie Gillies recently opened up about her husband Ben’s recent appearance in court over a drink-driving charge. “Ben has made mistakes. He’s learned a significant lesson and I know how remorseful he is because he’s never, ever, ever, when he’s with me, drank and gotten behind a wheel. Ever,” she told Newcastle Herald.

“But I will say my husband has had problems with alcohol in the past, and my husband had not drunk alcohol in four years. When I went to the jungle Ben missed me, and that’s no excuse, but he did relapse.”

She continued: “I don’t want to say that I’m disappointed he had a relapse. I’m more disappointed that he got in a car and could have killed himself or somebody else. That is the thing I was really upset about. But he’s his own person and he has to make his own mistakes, I can’t control him.”

“Ben and I, we’re together every day. It’s natural for us. It’s not like a co-dependency: I go out and do my thing and he does his thing, but he struggled with not being able to talk to me when I was in the jungle. He saw me crying, he saw another man bully me on the show, and he couldn’t help me. I think all of that combined with everything else, it was like a f – – – ing pressure cooker for him.

She added: “It was probably very humiliating for Ben, being on the news, but so be it. He shouldn’t drink and drive.”

As previously reported, the Silverchair drummer pleaded guilty back in April after relapsing back in January when his wife was away in South Africa filming I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! He got behind the wheel of a car after a night of drinking and crashed into a power pole in Newcastle.

Gillies had pleaded guilty to mid-range drink driving and negligent driving after he “accelerated harshly” around a corner and crashed into a power pole in Maitland Road, Islington about 12.45am on January 21. He was breath-tested and returned a reading of 0.144, nearly three times the legal limit, reports the publication.

Gillies legal representative, Craig Robinson, said Ben had struggled with “alcohol problems in the past”, but he had been sober for four years prior to around the time of the crash.

“His wife went to South Africa to film a TV program,” Robinson said of Gillies’ wife’s spot on the latest season of Channel Ten’s I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here!

"A condition of the program is that they don’t have any phones so he had no contact with her."

Robinson said Gillies “wasn’t coping with that separation and that’s when he lapsed and consumed alcohol for a period of about two weeks, before and after the crash”.

But Robinson said Gillies now had his drinking “under control” and was remorseful and aware that he could have seriously injured or killed someone.

After much argument, Magistrate Peter Barnett ultimately persuaded to avoid sending Gillies to jail or sentencing him to a community service order, instead imposing an 18-month good behaviour bond, a $2200 fine and a 12-month disqualification, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

Photo Credit: Foxtel