I split up with my alcoholic husband on our honeymoon

On a trip to South America, newly-wed Sara Valance decided she could no longer take her spouse’s drunken behaviour – and had to go it alone

I met him on the third day of an trip I was making across New Zealand, in a backpacker’s hostel. We bonded instantly, not only over our mutual love of travel, but our shared grief, following the deaths of people close to us. David was clever, funny and full of adventurous ideas. And he sure did enjoy a drink.

When it transpired one evening that his late father had been an alcoholic, a disease that ran in his family, he himself was drinking wine at rapid speed. I snatched his glass and tossed it aside. It shattered: an omen of things to come. 

I blended quickly into his group of fellow travellers and, for nearly a year, we all chased the sun together. But in between stretches of bliss, David and I fought viciously. Looking back, it was always connected, directly or indirectly, to alcohol.