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Former NRL star Chris Walker won his battle with the bottle so convincingly that he is now the teetotal owner of a thriving vodka business after needing a stint in rehab to battle his grog habit.
The former Queensland, Broncos, Roosters and Titans winger is one of the men behind Sunny Days Distillery, which produces a range of products including Ariane Premium Vodka.
It’s an incredibly surprising field of work for a former try-scoring machine who had a career full of highlights on the field and alcohol-fueled lows off it.
In 2007, Walker, who confessed to drinking 100 drinks during a two-day bender, was ordered to undergo an eight-week rehabilitation program to address the alcoholism and anxiety problems that ruined his football career.
Walker (pictured with wife Courtney) went from being a problem drinker to spending his working days going from pub to pub without touching a drop.
The former Queensland Origin winger (pictured playing for the Brisbane Broncos in 2001) excelled on the field but was a magnet for trouble outside of football while drinking.
The 43-year-old once joked that he “played in more clubs than Slim Dusty” after being sacked by the Roosters and Melbourne Storm due to his alcohol consumption, but today he is a completely changed man and couldn’t be happier .
Walker is now so confident in his ability to resist the lure of the bottle that he has no problem going from pub to pub selling vodka in his role as a roving ambassador for Sunny Days.
When asked how someone who previously couldn’t control themselves with alcohol now makes a living from it, he has to think for a second before answering.
“Very good question. The simple answer is that I don’t drink anymore,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
‘I’ve been sober for almost 14 months. At some point it hit me and my conscious and subconscious aligned and I gave it away.
‘Having that understanding, starting a vodka company and not drinking, is one of those things on my journey in life and I feel very comfortable with my position.
Walker (pictured with Bulldogs great Willie Mason) was still drinking when he and a couple of friends started the Sunny Days Distillery business, but he soon reached a turning point in his life.
The 43-year-old is the roving ambassador and marketer for the Sunny Days range of vodkas, including Ariane Premium (pictured).
“I had that conversation with Wayne Bennett (his Broncos coach) about six months ago and he was very proud of me for taking that path.”
Walker was still drinking when he founded the company three years ago, but he eventually came to a fork in the road.
“At 43 years old there came a time when I needed to grow up,” he said.
“There are certain people in the industry who can go out, have a drink and function the next day; not that I couldn’t function the next day, but I found it a little bit more difficult to get my productivity to a point where I needed it to be put.” get this business going.
‘I know what the products taste like, so I don’t need to keep drinking them to sell them.
‘I’m talking to these big independent retailers and landlords; most of those guys (who own) 50, 100, 200 pubs that I’m dealing with, I find that they don’t drink. They are around alcohol 100 percent of the time like me, and they don’t drink because they are businessmen.
Being teetotal has not only helped Walker with his business life, but has also allowed him to achieve excellent physical shape.
“That’s the lesson I’ve learned.”
Walker, who also made headlines during his playing days when he dated Home and Away star Kate Ritchie, said his family and friends were “very supportive” of his move into the vodka business despite his checkered past with the grog.
Being teetotal has not only helped him expand the business to the point that Ariane and its sister brands Pink Dot Vodka and Sunny Days are sold in up to 3,000 stores nationwide.
He’s also in excellent physical shape, as evidenced by his workout videos on Instagram, in which he looks like he could still run and play in first grade.
“It helps me a lot to wake up at five in the morning instead of coming home at five in the morning,” he laughs.
But things haven’t been easy for Walker since he started the business in 2020.
He said he “cheated death” after suffering horrific leg injuries when a container fell on him while he was in Far North Queensland selling his vodkas in December 2021.
The former tryscoring machine was crushed by a shipping container in December 2021, suffering shocking leg injuries (pictured) that left him wheelchair-bound.
He contributed to charities that support people experiencing alcohol problems and mental issues such as depression and anxiety by walking 71 minutes from Cairns to the Gold Coast starting in April 2021, and loves inspiring others.
“The last two years, I can tell you right now, have been the hardest of my life,” he said.
‘I had to turn back the clock to two or three years old and learn to walk again.
“Being in a wheelchair for two or three months, I was relieved to know that I was still alive and I still had my legs.”
Walker spent 71 days walking from Cairns to the Gold Coast starting in April 2021 to raise funds for Beyond Blue, RizeUp Australia and the Alcohol and Drug Foundation, and is now proud that people who are going through the same struggles as him are They see it as an inspiration. I’m going through.
“When I woke up at five o’clock during that walk and saw the messages from a large number of people wanting to see how the day was going and saying that it was giving them strength to get through the day, it was humbling,” said.
“People still come up to me today and tell me I changed their lives.”