[Omah]

Cheryl Cole suffering depression and at "breaking point"

CHERYL Cole’s dreams of success on American X Factor were shattered by her secret battle against depression, friends revealed last night. The Girls Aloud star, 27, is still reeling after being axed from the show and sources say she has been “crying all week” since the news was made public.

But according to pals, her problems have been mounting for months after she went to America and felt lonely and homesick, spending days on end alone locked in a hotel room as she stressed over work committments. At one point Cheryl is said to have become obsessed with the Lady Gaga song Teeth – playing it over and over again, with its lyrics about needing a man and having “no direction”.

Wounded Cheryl, who has been clinically depressed in the past, is now snubbing pleas for her to return to the UK version of X Factor. Desperate ITV1 chiefs have raised their offer to £2million to try to get her back, but a weekend deadline has already passed.

And insiders say her problems are more long-term than just the bad news she has been faced with this week.

Since March, when she first went out to Los Angeles to begin her assault on the American music market, she has struggled badly to cope with being away from home. Cheryl has not been seen in public since flying home from the States a week ago. She is believed to be staying with her mum and brother who are trying to comfort her.

In the past Cheryl has spoken of her struggle to cope with the pressure of being a big star. She told Vogue in 2009 she was a worrier and revealed she once suffered from clinical depression.

“That’s one of my problems – I do worry about things. I’m probably going to end up dying with worry.” She added: “I was clinically depressed once after a bad relationship. We have it in the family.”

Asked if she was suffering from depression at the moment, a spokesman for Cheryl said yesterday he “could not comment on anything at this stage”.

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