Billie Piper admits dark side of teen pop stardom

Billie Piper has revealed that she turned to drink and drugs after becoming a teenage pop star.

Speaking to the Radio Times, she revealed: “I tried all those things. Everyone else was and it seemed like fun.”

“I had my head in the clouds, was mad, neurotic and self-destructive — a very different character to the one you see today.”

“My eyes were vague and dead, and my mouth was smiling without feeling, in a false pose I’d become accustomed to.”

She even considered suicide: “I had a very dark moment at 16 when I didn’t want to be here any more. But I did nothing about it, thank God.”

“I was a little girl from Swindon, but managers and others work you to death, and you become exhausted and bitter. I was working twice as hard as I am now.”

She also revealed she has no regrets about her marriage to (soon to be) ex-husband Chris Evans: “It was sweet and simple. Chris and I had found each other when it could have gone badly for both of us and we saved each other from our worlds of madness.”