Suzanne Shaw: 'I used to binge drink'

Dancing On Ice winner Suzanne Shaw has admitted that she used to binge drink and suffer from depression.

The ex-popstar confessed that she was forced to depend on her mum after having two nervous breakdowns.

She told The Sun: "I hid the truth for a long time because I felt it made me a lesser person. If it wasn’t for my mum, who is a psychiatric nurse, I would have been in hospital."

Shaw first became depressed after the reality TV show pop group Hear'Say split in 2002. The singer said she found it hard to deal with commercial failures at the age of 18.

"I went from playing to arenas packed with 14,000 people to performing in front of 300 people with tickets not selling well," she said.

"I felt I had hit rock bottom and couldn’t see a future. I’d had stardom at such a young age - I was only 18 when I hit the spotlight - and I think the pressures of that got to me.

"Eventually I went to see a GP while we were performing in Wolverhampton. I was prescribed anti-depressants and gradually began to feel better."

Talking about her problems with drink, Shaw commented: "I would binge. I often drank a bottle of vodka a night and at one point I thought I was becoming an alcoholic.

"I had worked for two years non-stop and suddenly I had nothing. I didn’t know where I was headed or what I was going to do."

The ice skating star revealed that her second breakdown came after she ended her relationship with Darren Day in 2005.

She added: "When Darren left, I was furiously resentful. I thought, ‘How dare he leave us to pick up the pieces emotionally and financially?’ I strove to hold myself together, for Corey’s sake."

Shaw, who was voted Celebrity Mum Of The Year 2008, is currently dating radio DJ Jason King.