Nicole Scherzinger's bulimia battle almost destroyed her

Los Angeles - Nicole Scherzinger admits her eight-year battle with bulimia almost ruined her life.

The former Pussycat Doll, 36, went to extreme lengths to stay slim, but it wasn't until she collapsed in her hotel room that she decided to kick the eating disorder that had ruled her body and mind for almost a decade.

Speaking in the August issue of the UK's Darren Prew, she said: ''I had started losing my voice, I couldn't sing at shows, and then I remember my manager finding me passed out on the floor in Malta or in the south of France. I thought, 'I'm going to lose everything I love if I don't love myself.' ''

However, the brunette beauty, who went public with her eating disorder in 2012, claims beating the illness was a hard process because it had become like a ''drug'' to her.

She explained: ''It is such a horrible, paralysing disease and it was such a dark time for me. I didn't think anyone knew in my group or in my family because I hid it that well, I was so ashamed, i knew it wasn't normal or healthy because I was hurting myself through this cycle of disordered eating. It was my drug, my addiction. It's an endless vicious cycle."

Nicole is now living a healthy lifestyle and credits her boyfriend Lewis Hamilton, whom she has dated on/off since 2007, for putting the light back into her life.

Scherzinger said: "Well, it's something crazy romantic. Relationships are hard and having to hold a long-distance relationship is even harder ... But I'm good and I'm happy."