>didir="ltr">‘X Factor’ winner Matt Cardle has detailed his struggle with drug addiction in a new interview. The singer explained that he became an alcoholic and got hooked on illegal and prescription drugs. Cardle said his battles with addiction started as his career and success started to tank. As NME reports, the singer explained that he came close to death a “number” of times. He detailed taking the painkiller Tramadol, “for fun if I’m honest”. He also took Valium, “I would wake up… in the toilet, in my bedroom, on the bed”. The situation soon got lethal, “it’ll stop your heart and that’s it. So it was getting to that point for me without knowing it”, Cardle said.

The singer discussed why he fell to such lows. “I honestly didn’t care about myself”, Cardle said, adding that he was “frustrat[ed]” about his declining career. “I was being rejected left, right and centre for a record”, he said. “I didn’t have a label, I didn’t really have any management at the time, I didn’t have a steady place”. Now, the singer has been re-signed to Sony, with a fourth album due next month. ‘Time to Be Alive’ will be released on April 27.