Movie funnyman Gene Wilder has poured out his heart about his late wife Gilda Radner in a new book, revealing that the comedienne was a bulimic binge drinker with a terrible insecurity complex.

In tell-all KISS ME LIKE A STRANGER, the 71-year-old BLAZING SADDLES star admits he was quietly relieved when cancer claimed the life of Radner in 1989 - but he has missed her and her quirks ever since.

Wilder says, "She was a pest, a brat, narcissistic, insecure; she wanted everyone on earth to love her.

"After concluding that I loved her and couldn't live with her, when we said goodbye I breathed a sigh of relief. I got to my home I said, 'Isn't this nice, that little pest isn't dragging me down any more.'

"I stood like a zombie for a minute and I dropped to my knees and I started pounding the carpet on the floor... because I had to have her back. I needed a fix and the fix was her."

Wilder reveals the toughest thing about living with his ex was accepting her drinking problems and bulimia, which cost her her teeth.

He recalls, "Shortly after eating she would go in and get rid of it. She said, 'All I ask is that you don't monitor me.'

"When you throw up continuously, the acid starts to wear your teeth down.

"She also had a little flask. I said, 'What's in this? What are you drinking?' She said it's Tab and vodka. I said, 'But it's a quarter to eight in the morning.' (She said) 'It's to calm my nerves my little bit.'"

16/03/2005 02:58