Eating ‘Hillbilly Crack’, brawl with drug dealer & ‘ghosting’ Meghan Markle…Matt Cardle’s VERY rocky life after X Factor
AFTER beating One Direction to the X Factor crown in 2010 and selling a million copies of his debut single, Matt Cardle had the showbiz world at his feet.
But as fame took hold, the singer plummeted to rock bottom, spiralling into addiction with daily cocktail of alcohol, prescription pills and illegal drugs.
Troubled Matt, 41, found himself "eating tramadol for fun" while also knocking back valium and snorting so much cocaine he said he was "lucky on a number of occasions not to have been found f***ing cold."
He was dumped by his girlfriend and axed from Simon Cowell's record label Syco.
"In 2013 and 2014 there was nobody looking over me or after me," he says.
"I was in London on my own, pretty desperately unhappy."
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A decade on, the singer is gearing up for a chart comeback, with his new album The Great Escape due for release in January 2025.
But he admits his return to the notoriously cut-throat music industry has only been possible by beating the demons that have plagued him since he first found fame 14 years ago - and ditching drugs and drink.
Matt, is currently on tour with told The Sun “I stopped drinking again in January. I realised I have always written my best music when I’ve been sober and I think that’s true for most people.
“Better things happen when I have a clean and clear head.”
He added: "Life is always better when I’m not drinking. Life has been great."
Matt's life certainly had more downs than up during his drug-addled hellraising days. Here we look at his rocky road from The X Factor to recovery.
Drug spiral
Matt won viewers' votes after storming into The X Factor final in 2010 and 19 million people watched him beat One Direction to win.
His debut single, When We Collide, sold a million copies and shot to number one but, within 18 months, he was struggling to keep up as One Direction conquered the world.
Matt begged to be prescribed Tramadol - the powerful painkiller Ant McPartlin, 48, described as "hillbilly crack" - after becoming addicted when he started taking it for a minor injury on his finger, sustained on a tour bus.
"I wasn't that injured, I didn't really need it," he admitted. "I started eating Tramadol for fun.
"Then the first time I did Valium was on a flight to LA and that was it. Valium and alcohol are lethal together anyway.
"It's a muscle relaxant and your heart's a muscle."
I started eating Tramadol for fun
Matt Cardle
For two years Matt, from Halstead in Essex, became completely dependant on booze and drugs - leading to several terrifying near death experiences.
His escalating addiction problems had already cost him his relationship with then girlfriend, X Factor backing dancer Sarah Robinson, and his terrified family begged him to stop.
But Matt was hooked.
"I was washing down the last Diazepam I had with a bottle of Jack Daniels." he admits. "I couldn't stop."
Matt also revealed that he came close to dying.
"I would wake up in various parts of my flat, in the toilet, in my bedroom, off the bed, in the lounge, and it would be like 'Oh that's where it ended.'
"If you were on your own and you're completely smashed and you've taken one too many, you won't wake up, it'll stop your heart and that's it.
"So it was getting to that point for me without me knowing it."
The lowest point came when Matt had a fight with his drug dealer when he refused to sell him more valium after performing at the Jingle Bell Ball in Belfast, in 2013.
"I actually snatched them out of hs hand and shoved him and it got a bit horrible," he said.
The dealer was so alarmed he called Matt's older brother Dominic who rushed to help - resulting in a spell at The Priory rehab facility.
X Factor flings
Matt's love life has been plagued with scandal too.
During his stint on X Factor Matt was mentored by Dannii Minogue and quickly gained a reputation as the show's heartbreaker.
He dumped his girlfriend then Lauren Cutmore and had a fling with the show's make up artist Grace Woodward.
But Grace was reportedly mortified after catching him flirting with one of the backing dancers who performed alongside him in the live shows.
Grace screamed at him: "It's over."
Due to a bout of tonsilitis, Matt could not shout back.
Within days he was dating Sarah - leaving her boyfriend of four years Blair Dreelan devastated.
Sarah sent Blair a blunt text saying: "I'm in love with him. Stop contacting me."
Blair, whose own band 4th Ba5e auditioned three times for X Factor, recalled: "Thinking that the woman who was once the love of my life is with another man makes me feel sick to my stomach.
"They would have wanted to keep this as quiet as possible so that Matt didn't appear to be a relationship wrecker.
"I can't bear to see his face or listen to his songs. It makes me want to cry. I feel so gutted."
Grace later revealed that she was shamed by the production team and executives long after their short lived romance was over.
"To this day I don't know how it became public knowledge when all that happened was Matt stayed at my flat once," she said in 2022.
"Things at that point became difficult for me. I felt like I was being shamed on a daily basis.
"Two of the executives stormed up to me and yelled, 'This ends now.'
"It was really unfair because we weren't in a relationship but they didn't care about that.
I was being shamed on a daily basis,
Grace Woodward
"I was deeply shamed and I still feel deeply shamed today.
"But to my knowledge, there were no repercussions for Matt.
"Days later I was told he was dating one of the dancers. The attitude there was, 'Boys will be boys.'"
Meghan Markle snub
Matt also had a brush with Meghan Markle before she met Prince Harry - and he ended up ghosting her.
He revealed how he followed Meghan, 43, on social media in 2015 after watching her on TV drama Suits.
Keen to strike up a friendship with a British pop star, Meghan quickly started messaging him online.
But Matt stopped replying to Meghan's messages when he met his former girlfriend Amber Hernaman.
Recalling their brief flirtation later Matt said: "It was just a very weird situation — very odd. And I really don't know how it came about.
"Life's got a course and I was not on that one.
"I've laughed about it, but it's amazing thinking back."
X Factor 'fraud'
Matt recently confessed that he felt like a fraud because he lied about his job when he appeared on X Factor because 'it sounded better.'
He claimed he was a painter and decorator, but admitted later that he was unemployed.
"The painting and decorating story wasn't entirely true.
"I was doing anything for cash when I auditioned for that show but that sounded the best."
He added: "I was such a fraud on my VTs, carrying a six foot ladder into the house... It was so stupid but that's fine, everyone had their role and it worked very well."
After the show wrapped, Matt became embroiled in a long running and bitter feud with James Arthur.
The 2012 winner hit out at Matt over record sales, saying: "Two million returned and now live in the bargain bin at Asda."
Matt said James, 36, was ";constantly bad mouthing me" and "he was such an angry person."
In 2013 he said: "The guy has a serious problem with me.
"We had crossed words a year ago after he slagged me off but he still won't drop it.
"He's such an angry person. His arrogance is off the scale."
That was not the only time Matt clashed with another singer.
Three years later, he attempted to sue superstar Ed Sheeran, 33, for £13.8 million over his hit track Photograph.
The songwriters behind Matt's song Amazing, Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard, claimed that Ed's song infringed their copyright as there were similarities in the words, vocal style, melody and rhythm.
They said Photograph was a "note by note copy".
The case was eventually settled for £3.8million.
Reality TV salaries revealed
Towie:
Cast members are put into four pay bands based on their popularity.
Reality veterans Bobby Norris, James ‘Diags’ Bennewith, Georgia Kousoulou, and Chloe Sims were in the top tier, which meant they commanded £450 an episode.
Others were paid £350, £250 or £90 if they were a newcomer trying to prove their worth.
Geordie Shore:
The MTV show reportedly paid cast members £1,000-a-month for their wild antics in the early days of the show.
Veteran Sophie Kasaei revealed the cast had to work other jobs to supplement their income.
She said: “When we first started the show we got absolutely nothing.
“The most we ever got was £1000 a month and we couldn’t survive on that, obviously after tax as well.
“Most of us worked at the call centre because in Newcastle there’s a lot of call centres because we can sell you the dream, we’re very friendly and warm and trustworthy.
Gogglebox:
Each household is paid the same monthly allowance of £1,500.
A show insider revealed the fee is then split amongst contributors at their own discretion.
They also get to tuck into a free takeaway of their choice twice a week to keep them fuelled during long filming sessions.
The armchair critics have to watch 12 hours of telly a week in total - which is divided into two six-hour stints.
I'm A Celebrity:
The jungle show is a jewel in ITV's crown with a bumper budget to boot. Payments are tailored to the individual, with the greater their fame or controversy factor, the bigger the cheque.
Nigel Farage reportedly bagged £1.5m for the last series - the most in its history.
While eventual series winner Sam Thompson was a snip at £80,000. This Morning's Josie Gibson is said to have pocketed £100k while Britney's sister Jamie Lynn received an impressive £250k.
'Lack of care' on show
Matt has lashed out at the lack of support for contestants on The X Factor, after blaming the show for many of his issues.
He said it was a miracle that there were no suicides like the tragedies that have rocked Love Island.
"It is a miracle," he said. "You're playing with people's hopes and dreams.
"If you bring someone up and then cast them aside, that can be enough to drive someone to the edge, it really can.
"We were flying on the edge of it not being ok at times with things that happened to some of the contestants.
"I do think there should have been more aftercare.
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"You walk out the door and you can't move because everyone knows who you are. It's shocking.