Cheryl Cole could be friends with Ashley 'one day'

The X Factor judge, 27, said: "We've been divorced. That's a pretty big ending. Maybe we can be friends… one day."

Cole, below, said she felt "embarrassed" dealing with reports of her husband's infidelity while in the media spotlight.

She said: "I'm human. I'm still a person, you know. I know to a lot of people the headlines and the stories they read are like some sick entertainment or soap opera, but it's my life and I'm really dealing with it, and it's really happening. It's my real life. Of course I was embarrassed."

Cole said she had come to "hate this year" after enduring the breakdown of her relationship and battling malaria.

She was at one stage admitted to intensive care at University College London Hospital, home to the Hospital for Tropical Diseases.

She said: "I had no liver function, no kidney function, I was swollen with the fluid, I had no oxygen in my blood.

"You know how sometimes you feel ill and say: 'I feel like I'm dying?' Well I actually felt like I was dying. I asked the nurse outright, was I going to die? She said: 'There's a possibility.'"