Actress Stephanie Davis has said going into rehab was “the best decision of my life”.
The former Hollyoaks star spent two months in treatment after revealing that she was an alcoholic.
It came at the end of a turbulent period in her life which saw her ex, Jeremy McConnell – father of her one-year-old son Caben – convicted of assaulting her.
Davis said on ITV’s Lorraine that her “self-worth was on the floor” and she was left feeling suicidal as a result of her rocky relationship with McConnell, whom she met on Celebrity Big Brother in 2016.
She said that, looking back, signing up for the reality show had been the “wrong thing” for her.
“Obviously I don’t regret it because I’ve got Caben,” she said.
“I didn’t know who I was, I was so young, I was getting to know myself. I wasn’t confident. It was just the wrong thing. But I can’t regret it because I’ve got Caben.
“But looking back, if I did it now it would be completely different.”
The 24-year-old said she was “head over heels” in love with model McConnell but their romance went into a “downward spiral, really fast, dark”.
.@Stephdavis77: 'My self-worth was on the floor. Part of domestic violence is they chip away at you until you feel like you're nothing.' pic.twitter.com/uwPieIRnz1
— Lorraine on ITV (@ITVLorraine) February 21, 2018
Davis went on: “My self-worth was on the floor … you feel like you are nothing without that person.
“I didn’t think I was going to make his (son Caben’s) first birthday.
“I’ve got a great team around me that has helped me but it was sad to say that and it was sad to think i was feeling that low. I can’t believe I ever got to that point.”
When host Lorraine Kelly suggested Davis had been feeling suicidal, she said: “Yes, I really was.”
She said of going into rehab: “It was best decision of my life.
“It changed everything. It was just like a big eye-opener.”
She said of McConnell: “You can’t argue with someone like that, no matter what, he will always think he’s right.”
Davis said she has moved on and is happy and now wants to return to acting and help raise awareness of alcoholism and domestic violence.
She said: “I have an alcoholic in my head as a homeless person on the street. I didn’t think I could be an alcoholic, I’m young, I’ve got it all, but I knew something wasn’t going right.
“I’ve always had a problem with drink, it’s never agreed with me, but with Jeremy it escalated quickly. When he did things to me I would drink to block it out. It was just a real bad time.”
She said: “I really want to help young people to realise the stigma around alcohol and domestic violence and I want to be the voice to say it’s OK not to be OK.
“Being in this industry I always had to put on an act, like ‘No I’m fine’, like have this perfect image. No, it’s not, and no, I wasn’t OK.”
Last year McConnell was sentenced to 20 weeks in jail, suspended for 12 months, and 200 hours’ community service for assaulting Davis.