Kate DeAraugo has opened up about how finding fame and fortune after her 2005 Australian Idol win helped her fund her addiction to methamphetamine.
The 37-year-old said she saw drugs as a “solution” to her struggles with social anxiety and body image issues while performing with The Young Divas.
“I think I was maybe making some money at that point, so I was able to maintain a pretty big habit pretty quickly,” she said Nine honey.
“I suffered from social anxiety and insecurities and all that stuff throughout my teenage years, and when I got involved with drugs in a social setting, it felt like my solution at the time.”
Kate added that her addiction not only tore her life apart, but also caused conflict in the lives of those she loved.
Kate DeAraugo has opened up about how finding fame and fortune after her 2005 Australian Idol win helped her fund her addiction to methamphetamine. Pictured on Australian Idol
“I hurt a lot of people and it’s not just a story about me,” she said.
“There are a lot of other people involved and I wanted to be able to do it in a way that was respectful of other people’s feelings.”
It comes after Kate revealed that she was stabbed by an ex-partner at the height of her addiction.
The Australian Idol star makes the confession in her upcoming podcast series, Why Do I Feel This Way, VWeekend reported.
“I was stabbed during one of his angry ice events,” she said.
The 37-year-old said she saw drugs as a ‘solution’ to her struggles with social anxiety and body image issues during her performance with The Young Divas (pictured)
“I think I was maybe making some money at that point, so I was able to maintain a pretty big habit pretty quickly,” she told Nine Honey. Pictured outside court in 2015
‘I ended up with a machete in my leg and was in hospital because of it. I said I fell on a piece of tin on a construction site. And they looked at me like, whatever.
“In the back of my mind it was a story I told myself…” I’m not an addict. I don’t go to these places. I come from a good home.”
“But this s**t doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter where you come from, who your mom or dad are, or what school you went to.’
Kate added that she could tell “a million shocking stories” about “where, and how, and what we used.”
The Maybe Tonight singer previously opened up about how her partner Shannon Riseley helped her turn her life around after her battle with addiction. Pictured with the couple’s son
“I lost everything: my career, great relationships, friends, all my money,” she said.
‘I had lost all hope. I didn’t want to live anymore, but honestly I was too cowardly to die.’
The Australian Idol winner found herself at a low point in 2017 after pleading guilty to ice possession, drug driving and weapons offences.
To avoid conviction, the star was given a community corrections order and has since made every effort to rehabilitate herself and transform her life.
“I’ve been clean and sober for five years,” she said Shannon Noll’s Idol Talking podcast earlier this year.
“Addiction is a topic that needs to be talked about very openly and I think we are still not very well informed about it in this country.”
Kate previously revealed she was stabbed by an ex-partner at the height of her methamphetamine addiction
Kate, who won Australian Idol in 2005, said that while she has made many mistakes over the years, she is now taking responsibility for her past.
“My life has been a bit of a left-wing journey and I’ve done some things and gone places that I never wanted to go or didn’t plan to go, but it’s just where life led me.”
“Coming away from that, really turning around and stopping and looking at yourself and looking at your life and taking responsibility for your life decisions is probably the hardest and most terrifying thing I’ve ever done,” she added.
Kate says she realized her life needed to change after catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror one day.
‘I was skinny, my face was messed up and I was alone. And I looked at myself and thought, ‘Who are you?’ Call it a moment of sanity or divine intervention, but I knew… if things didn’t change, I would die.”
She called her mother, who took her home. A month later she used drugs for the last time and has now been off drugs for almost six years.
Kate says she realized her life needed to change after catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror one day. Pictured in 2007
The Maybe Tonight singer previously opened up about how her partner Shannon Riseley helped her turn her life around after her battle with addiction.
Earlier this year, the couple welcomed their first child, a son named Hudson.
Speaking on Channel Seven’s The Morning Show, Kate said her partner had been a huge support since becoming a mother as she introduced her baby to viewers.
“This is my new main man, Hudson, and he’s just the best man. He made my life pretty special,” she said.
“He’s pretty cold for the most part. He’s a great little guy.’
Recently pictured with partner Shannon Riseley