ALEX IS TO BLAME

GEORGE Best's first wife Angie blames his current wife Alex for the soccer legend's spectacular fall off the wagon.

The 50-year-old ex-model, who was married to George for six years and is the mother of his son Calum, says it would never have happened if Alex hadn't kept drinking in front of him.

"I have kept my mouth shut for too long," says Angie. "I hope last weekend was a wake-up call for Alex.

"She was naive to think she could continue to have a glass of wine with dinner in front of George, or even keep alcohol in the house, without it affecting him. She has to stop as well."

Only last month on a romantic break in Mustique, George, 57, described how he sipped a fruit cocktail while Alex enjoyed "one" glass of champagne.

"It was actually more like 10 because the lady on the boat kept topping her up," he said. "I can only think my Irish logic is rubbing off on Alex. It's one of the perfect excuses for alcoholics. I had them off to a tee in my day and she's copying me. Alex did only have one glass, but she drank the bottle."

Angie says it's simply not fair to drink in front of George and expect him not to be tempted. "Alex is wrong," she says. "I can understand that she's a young girl and wants to go out with her friends and have a good time but she has to understand the effect it has on George. If a woman is in sync with her man and loves him, she would want to try and help him as much as possible. And that means giving up the booze if you're married to an alcoholic.

"I used to ask her why she stayed with him. She wouldn't answer me - she'd just grin and shrug her shoulders.

"I think the truth is she is in the same situation as I used to be in - what I call the Florence Nightingale Syndrome when you think you can change him if you just hang on long enough."

Angie recalls an incident on Alex's 25th birthday when Alex went to the police claiming the former Manchester United idol had attacked her in a drunken rage. She made a formal complaint but then would not press charges. George denied hitting her.

Angie says: "The stupid thing is that in the beginning, it wasn't even a nice life for her. He used to beat her. He used to beat all his women. He would come home drunk and hit her and not even remember it the next day because of the alcohol.

"There were many nights when Alex would call me up in tears. Why call me, the ex-wife? Because I had been there. Because I understood that being with George Best is like an addiction all of its own. He hit me - it was the drink so he never remembered the next morning. That's why I forgave him.

"The reality is that Alex used to be an air hostess and now she is George Best's wife - with all that it means."

Now as George recovers from his latest hangover, Angie has to comfort their 22-year-old son Calum over his father's relapse. "Calum says he saw this coming but he was still devastated to find out George was drinking again," she says.

"He rang me very upset and said, 'Mum, I am so sad that my dad is so weak'. What a terrible, terrible thing for any child to say of his parent. But in George's case, he only has himself to blame for his son's opinion of him."

So how well do Alex, 31, and Calum get on?

Hesitantly Angie says: "I'm reluctant to bitch about Alex because the truth is that George would be dead now if it wasn't for her. She's the only thing which has kept him going so long.

"And I don't deny the last few years can't have been easy for her. She is so young, and stuck looking after a much older man who has a severe problem.

"Alex and Calum have what is best described as a superficial relationship. They're friends but they're not close."

Speaking at a cafe near her home in Malibu, California, Angie says she is very concerned about the effect of George's drinking on her son. "When Calum first told me George was back on the booze, all kinds of emotions went through my mind. I was extremely disappointed in him and I was angry, so angry.

"I kept thinking, how dare he? How dare he waste a liver which could have helped someone else, someone more deserving of it.

"How dare he waste the time of the surgeons and the people around him who care? How dare he be so selfish to his family, his wife and son who love him? I couldn't believe his selfish timing. Calum had moved to the UK two years ago specifically to get to know his father.

"They had just started building a proper relationship and had even just returned from spending a week together in Corfu when he goes and nearly throws it all away.

"He is capable of staying away from alcohol. For God's sake, he stayed off it for two years when he knew that another drink meant that he might die. But when they gave him a new liver, he saw it as giving him another 30 years of drinking.

"The problem is that the doctors fixed his body - but they didn't fix his mind. He drinks because he is insecure and he doesn't believe in himself."

If Angie sounds frustrated, it's no wonder. She has dealt with Best and his issues with alcohol for more than two decades.

And now up-and-coming model Calum is attracting unwelcome attention for his party lifestyle.

One interviewer recently wrote about how he drank vodka and Red Bull during their meeting and how he had shown up looking bleary- eyed for a photoshoot then left, "heading for the pub", and his modelling agency was unable to contact him for five days.

Angie hopes Calum's excesses are down to his youth and nothing more sinister. "I know there are no guarantees that he won't go down the same path as his father.

"I have to keep reminding myself that he is 22, earning lots of money, meeting gorgeous women and having a wonderful time as he should be at his age.

"I happen to believe that alcoholism is not a disease - people can choose to have a drink or not. And I won't allow alcohol to ruin my son's life as it has his father's." Angie herself radiates health and contentment. She's slender and toned thanks to her passion for riding horses and her work as a personal trainer.

About to turn 51, she looks at least a decade younger and many years younger than the former husband she met when she was just 18. Shortly after Calum was born, she moved with him to California. She worked for several years as Cher's personal trainer. Now she has a variety of interests.

"I keep myself busy. I'm having talks with people in England about setting up health groups in major cities to educate women about health via nutrition."

Angie has also developed a "Magic Mask" - a skin treatment for women over 40. And she's hoping to become a spokeswoman for a jewellery company.

While she built up her career, Calum returned to England for occasional visits to his father. "Unfortunately, hanging out with Dad meant going to the local pub," she says dryly. "Most of the time George would get drunk and forget he even had his son with him."

Relations between Calum and George hit a low 18 months ago after George wrote an article for a newspaper claiming that Calum had run up a pounds 19,000 hotel bill on his credit card.

"I was so mad when I heard about that," says Angie. "How dare George air the family's dirty linen in public? How dare he humiliate his son like that? What happened is that Calum had gone over there on a mission to get to know his dad, finally.

"Calum was there for two weeks and then the modelling agency he was working for asked him to stay another two weeks.

"I got a phone call from Alex, angry about it. The next thing I knew, it was there in George's column. Alex had thrown a fit and George had sprung to her defence against Calum. What other father would have behaved like that? Calum was so, so hurt that it was hard for me to cope with."

Mother and son clearly share a close bond - although Angie admits she has no idea how to get hold of Calum right now.

"He won't give me his telephone number," she giggles. "It started a couple of months ago when he got tired of me calling to tell him the dog had the hiccups.

"Now if I want to get hold of him I have to call his modelling agency and leave a message.

"He's such an independent soul. He's ambitious but he wants to make it on his own without always being known as George Best's son. He wants to be an actor and he's been offered loads of parts but he's waiting for the right one to come along.

"I am so proud of Calum. He's the most gentlemanly, sincere boy. He's very intuitive and smart. I only wish George would realise what a treasure he has in his son.

"I still care about George. He is not a bad man - he is a man with a problem.

"I just hope he will now get the help he needs before it's too late - for him and for Calum."

Wife sets up George pub watch

ALEX Best has set up her own "Pub Watch" scheme in a desperate bid to stop husband George from drinking.

She has arranged for staff in bars close to where the couple live in Lower Kingswood, Surrey, to alert her if they see him fall off the wagon. The pubs include The Chequers where George was involved in a bust-up with a photographer last weekend. Alex said: "George has not been drinking again all week, as far as I know, and I want it to stay that way."

Her new plan was put to the test on Friday when George went back to The Chequers while Alex went shopping.

A barmaid called Alex on her mobile. She said: "I was just letting her know that George was in here but he wasn't touching the booze."

Last week the landlord of The Chequers, Mark Noble-Campbell, said he was banning Best from drinking alcohol at the pub.

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