Jamie Carragher reveals how his wife helped him recover from spitting shame

Jamie Carragher has admitted his spitting shame will 'haunt me for the rest of my life' after praising his wife for helping him get his life back on track.

The former Liverpool defender was suspended by Sky Sports in March of last year after being caught on camera spitting out of his car window at a man who was taunting him about Manchester United's victory over his old side.

The spit also hit the man's 14-year-old daughter, who was in the passenger seat, leading to widespread criticism of Carragher's behaviour and calls for him to be sacked from his punditry role.

He publicly apologised on Sky News and was reinstated by Sky after reaching out to Andy Hughes, the man involved in the incident, and his teenage daughter.

Revisiting the incident in a candid podcast interview with Alistair Campbell, the ex-Downing Street press secretary, and his daughter Grace, a comedian and activist, Carragher admitted he only got through the aftermath thanks to his wife Nicola.

He said: 'We [family] were devastated by it really, you go back and think the aftermath of it, you do interviews and apologising, and I had to come back to my family that day, sometimes you think back and think how did you get through it.

'I'm not someone who is permanently trying to blame someone else, I made a massive mistake and I think the world we live in now for people in the public eye, and sometimes people in the public eye complain about intrusion, I would never complain about that and I don't think they should.

'We are in a privileged position more often than not we are high profile which means you earn a lot of money and anyone who tells you it's not a great life is telling lies.

'A guy was trying to get a funny video of me, and it's not the first time and it won't be the last time.

'I've never reacted like that before, I had come out and I was just driving along and I actually thought it was a Liverpool fan.

'So I put my window down as if to say "Hiya, mate. You OK?" And then I get a little bit of abuse and listen it wasn't nothing major, he was just a normal fan gloating about the win.

'It carried on about two or three times and I just snapped, can't explain why I did it, if I could take that back, it will probably haunt me for the rest of my life.

'It's probably taken me six to 12 months to get over it in some ways.

'I got great support at the time, I was very lucky with that.

'I spoke to the guy involved a couple of days later and I think they regretted it, the whole thing, they started getting a bit of abuse when it was in the press.

'The thing that absolutely kills me is the bit about his daughter, and this thing that I spat at a girl, it just kills me.

'I didn't see who was in the passenger seat and I just lost my head.

'As soon as I got home I told my wife, I knew straight away, I just thought oh my god, my wife was unbelievable for me.'

In the podcast, titled Football, Feminism and Everything in Between, which is available on Wednesday, Carragher also says if Boris Johnson becomes Prime Minister he'd be unable to visit Liverpool - because of his previous comments about Hillsborough.

Carragher blasted Johnson as a 'phoney' and described Brexit as a 'shambles'.

He said: The thing that p***** me off is that, I think people have jumped on this bandwagon of Brexit, for their own, basically to become Prime Minister.

'Gove and Johnson, Johnson didn't even want to leave, they jumped on the back of it because they knew Cameron would have to go if he lost it.

'Gove then back-stabs Johnson, to try and get it [PM] but doesn't get it.

'If he [Johnson] gets in, there was stuff I was reading about him the other day about stuff he's said about Hillsborough, saying self pity city, like that, I'm just thinking that he wouldn't be able to visit the city [Liverpool].'

Carragher also added that women know as much about football as men but he 'doesn't see a woman Premier League manager in the next 10 years'.