Sarah Harding pictured out after sleeping pill and alcohol addiction confession
Her name has been all over the papers this week thanks to her explosive admission of domestic violence and addiction to sleeping pills.
But Sarah Harding is not hiding away at home during the fallout.
The singer, 30, has been making daily trips to London to go shopping and today was pictured arriving at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.
Dressed in a burgundy knit jumper, skinny jeans and matching boots, Harding was collected form her Buckinghamshire home and driven to the west London hotel.
She wore her blonde hair tousled and shaded her eyes in large sunglasses.
She hid the bruising she showed off on the front cover of The Sun this week beneath her long sleeves.
Today Harding revealed in yet another tell-all that she was addicted to sleeping pills.
The problem escalated beyond her control and she was forced to spend three weeks in rehab to wean herself off of Zopiclone and alcohol.
The Girls Aloud star suffered in silence for four years as she endured a journey of what she describes as 'going to hell and back'.
Sarah told The Sun: 'My drinking was out of control and I was addicted to sleeping pills. It was an awful combination.'
She also alluded to tragic Amy Winehouse, who died last July after she was found with more than five times the legal drink-drive limit in her blood.
Sarah says her problems began soon after finding success with the band: 'It was trying to maintain that f****** image that got me in all this trouble.'
Soon she was drinking a bottle of wine for breakfast, which resulted in erratic sleeping patterns and her love/hate affair with Zopiclone.
Zopiclone is reportedly one of the prescription drugs found in Heath Ledger's home after he died from an overdose of prescription drugs.
When Sarah split from DJ fiance Tom Crane in September, her drinking became difficult to manage as she was 'isolated and depressed'.
After realising she was on a downward spiral and going 'off the rails', she checked herself into a rehab clinic in Cape Town in October.
It was here she met new boyfriend Theo De Vries.
Speaking for the first time, Harding went into detail about the incident with her boyfriend of three months.
Looking at the image on the cover of the newspaper, it seems Harding's altercation with her boyfriend of three months was in fact very physical.
'He grabbed me by my hair - throwing my head on the floor. We were struggling,' she recalled.
'While he had me by the hair, he was pulling me across the floor. He was dragging me around.
'He was smacking my head on the floor. He bit my ear. And when I kicked him to try and get him off me, I got his nose and he was bleeding.'
The singer also claimed Theo smeared blood all her face during the incident.
Her allegations come after De Vries accused her of biting him and throwing an ashtray at his head.
Harding arrived back in the UK bandaged up after catching the first flight home from Austria.
She had been staying in the Hotel Schloss Matzen with her boyfriend when things took a turn for the worse.
Harding explained: 'He was goading me. The abuse carried on and on till I'd had enough. He got so horrible I threw a coffee cup at him. It missed.'
Harding claims she was defending herself during the incident after she decided to end her relationship with De Vries - and admitted it probably wasn't the best idea to date someone also battling an addiction.
And she is particularly annoyed that the incident led her to break 90 days of sobriety, tempting her back onto the bottle.
She admitted she found him 'lovely' when they first met, but things rapidly went down hill during their holiday when he apparently started drinking.
Harding realised that her and De Vries were not compatible and claims she left the hotel early to fly back to the UK.
However, when she couldn't get a flight, she ended up returning to their hotel and that's when the fight took place.
The pop star added that she thinks the reason De Vries was so angry is because he could tell she still had feelings for her ex-fiancé Tom Crane.
'I think he knew I missed Tom, because I do - desperately,' she said.
'I think in a way I was on a rebound. I think that p***** him off. I called him Tom a few times by mistake. He hated that.'
Harding also revealed that she has been in contact with the DJ since the incident, who 'wants to kill' Theo.
Although she admits they still care about each other, she insists 'we are just not right for each other at this point in time'.
Harding stated that she wishes she could 'do something' about the incident, but that it will cost a lot of money as it would have to be a civil case.
Both her and De Vries face assault charges due to both of their allegations and injuries.
