My Girls Aloud mates saved me from drink and depression, says Harding

POP star Sarah Harding has revealed it was her fellow Girls Aloud singers who spotted she needed help to sort out her drinking and said she cried “hysterically” as she headed to rehab.

Speaking for the first time about her stint in a United States clinic, Harding said her drinking went out of control as her relationship with former fiancé Tom Crane disintegrated and she tried to “numb” the pain.

She said: “The day I left for rehab, I was in such a mess. I’ve been told by those close to me that was when I hit my worst.

“I was crying hysterically. I felt ashamed, embarrassed, terrified – my emotions were all over the place.”

Harding said she was ricocheting between emotional extremes as her wild living spiralled as a way to cope with being down.

The chart star, who scored hits such as Love Machine and Biology, with the girl group sought help for depression and alcohol abuse in October when her relationship with DJ Crane fell apart.

Harding said: “Our lives had started to go in different directions without us even realising, and we’d become like passing ships.

“He had his career, I had mine, and somehow they didn’t seem to marry up.

“I was so down, but I just tried to keep busy and, to numb myself, I was drinking more,” she said. “It was my way of escaping.”