Suzanne Shaw’s post Hear’Say depression got so bad she turned to booze and sleeping pills to try and numb the pain.
Winning ITV’s Popstars together with Kym Marsh, Myleene Klass, Danny Foster and Noel Sullivan in 2001, the dream died before it really got started.
They split less than two years after winning the talent finding show and the group’s collapse took its toll.
Suzanne had not realised the state of her mental health when the group called it a day.
Things got worse when Darren Day left her and their eight-week-old son soon after and she has been talking about the impact those years had on her life.
(Image: Getty Images)
“My brain could not process the trauma and by the time the group split up, I didn’t even realise I was suffering from mental health problems,” she told The Sun.
“Life as I knew it disappeared overnight and I had no support system in place. I would actually compare what happened to PTSD as the shock was so massive.”
She added: “I was in denial for a long time. I went into a deep place and my coping mechanism became a very unhealthy relationship with alcohol, which numbed the pain.
(Image: suzanneshaw/Instagram)
“I wasn’t a big drinker with Hear’Say as we were too busy, and I’ve always been a bit of a lightweight, so there weren’t any 72-hour binges.
“But because I didn’t have a job any more there were definitely times when I was like, ‘Let’s party till the early hours and do 25 Jagerbombs’.
“I thought, ‘I’ll just have a glass of wine. Or I’ll sleep. Or I’ll just have a sleeping tablet’. I had a huge amount of self-loathing and wanted to be a different person.”
Just 19 then, Suzanne says there was nobody on hand to help look after the stars after they became famous overnight.
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Eight months after releasing their debut single, now Corrie star Kym quit, claiming there was a “bitter” atmosphere among the five.
Johnny Shentall was bussed in as a replacement but the band called it quits in October 2002.
Suzanne added: “I don’t think I realised what the impact was until it was all over, because our schedule was so insane.
“I just kept all the thoughts to myself and things got darker and darker. It was a very, very lonely time.”
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
