'Underbelly' star 'spent Xmas in rehab'

Simon Westaway has revealed that his friends checked him back into a rehab centre just days before Christmas.

The Underbelly star, who has previously had professional help for alcohol abuse, said that he blacked out on anti-anxiety medication while struggling to deal with "loneliness" after splitting from wife Diane last year.

Westaway told New Idea magazine: "It's just the loneliness, the pure loneliness is horrible. Who wants to be on their own all the time?

"So I went to the doctor and I explained I was feeling agitated, anxious and quite lonely and he gave me some tablets of Xanax, an anti-anxiety medication. The next thing I knew, I had lost three days.

"All I knew was that I was staring at familiar faces in rehab, going, 'I don't want to be here. I don't need to be here."

Westaway checked out of rehab after one night and spent New Year's at a meditation and writing retreat in Tasmania.