Gogglebox star Mary Killen has revealed she’s battling a vaping addiction — despite never having smoked a cigarette in her life.
The 67-year-old, who appears on Channel 4’s hit reality show alongside her husband Giles Wood, admitted she picked up the habit in her 60s after trying a friend’s son’s Juul vape “a couple of years ago”.
“I loved inhaling the odourless air and blowing it out again,” she wrote a new column for You Magazine. “It just looked so chic and felt cooling in the palm of the hand.”
Killen, a former Spectator columnist and etiquette expert, explained that she had always resisted smoking and doesn’t drink alcohol, but found herself hooked on the convenience and ritual of vaping.
The long-term health effects of vaping remain unknown, and the NHS advises against using e-cigarettes unless as a smoking cessation aid.
Killen, however, referenced a UK health site that claimed nicotine could have some benefits as a “stimulant.”
The TV personality now spends around £14 a week on Juul replacement pods, each equivalent to 20 cigarettes in nicotine content.
She explained: "Nicotine is highly addictive and I now waste about £14 a week on four Juul replacement pods, each one delivering roughly the same amount of nicotine as 20 cigarettes.
“And the addiction is a problem, because if I run out of replacement pods I become self-pitying and argumentative.”
She also shared that she is now making efforts to quit, prompted by recent warnings about the impact of vaping — particularly on children — and the lack of long-term research into its health effects.
Killen added that she’d "probably kill or be killed" by family members is she went "cold turkey".
She rounded off her column by calling the habit “very enjoyable” with no especially scary health risks, and there was easy access to “feed” her addiction.
She remains a divisive figure on Gogglebox, where she and Wood have been regulars since 2015.
