Ben Haenow started downing vodka as a teenager to escape depression.
The 29-year-old ‘X Factor’ hopeful has admitted that he begin binge drinking when he was 14 years old as he struggled to deal with life in a broken home.
The former van driver – explained how he was just four years old when he was forced to watch his mum Rosanna, 59, juggle three jobs following her divorce from Ben’s dad Mick, which left Ben in a spiral of depression.
He said: "As I got older, I couldn’t handle it and used to drink a lot. I was 14 years old and just necking a bottle of vodka a day until I was sick and paralytic."
While he failed to see the signs at the time, looking back now Ben says that he was almost certainly mentally unwell.
He told the Daily Mirror newspaper: "It would be stupid to say I wasn’t depressed. At the time the drinking seemed fine to me.
"It takes someone to say to you it’s not normal, this isn’t right, which is when you stop. But I just wanted yo get off my face.
"When we were young the big thing was glue sniffing but we didn’t do that. I just preferred vodka. Physically and mentally it was bad. I was hungover and felt like s*** at school."
Ben then explained that he stopped drinking when he turned 18, and has since got back in contact with his father.
He shared: "It would be good to make peace with him."
Ben Haenow ‘downed vodka’ to escape depression
