Jo O'Meara has spoken for the first time the extent of her gambling addiction when she was in nineties pop group S Club 7.
The talented singer, now 43, shot to fame with the chart toppers, who amassed four UK number ones.
However Jo was dealing with a gambling addiction, which she said was a form of escape from the "stress" of being in the band.
Speaking to GamCare with former England goalkeeper Peter Shilton and his wife Steph, the mum-of-one admitted she had been suffering from an "illness".
"I was a young girl in a very successful pop group and I had a slight thing for fruit machines," she explained.
"I think I used it as just my way out of stress and being in the band and I'd forget about everything.
“It actually makes you quite antisocial because I could be going out with a group of friends or whatever, then I’d go to the loo and be missing for ages."
Jo also spoke about her addiction on the Lorraine show this morning.
“It became a bit of a thing. With the band, it was so busy and so hectic, I just used it as a bit of escapism to run away with myself for a little while," she explained.
"When we used to travel around the county, it was like, ‘Where’s Jo?’ Everyone would know - ‘Oh, she’s on the fruit machines.’ But it was just what I did.”
Jo revealed she first went to bingo halls with her family aged 18 when she began playing on fruit machines.
Initially she didn't see the harm in what she was doing, but after five years realised a "gambler never wins".
"I don't think I realised it was an addiction until quite recently, if I'm being honest," she said.
“It would just let me forget about everything for a while, because all I could concentrate on was the task in hand, getting the three leprechauns or the three lemons in a row."
"It wasn’t about the money so much as about trying to beat the machine to get what I wanted it to do. It was the buzz.”
Thankfully Jo managed to quit her addiction and has not relapsed even after a trip to gambling mecca Las Vegas.
However, she explained most people think of gambling addicts as old men, but pointed out it can "happen to anyone".
News first broke of the star's plight back in 2000, however Jo said she was "annoyed" that people were calling her an addict.
“I didn’t really like that it was being labelled as gambling addiction because I never saw it that way and in a lot of ways I don’t see it as that much either, but I can see I had issues with it and I think if I’d been left to it and I didn’t snap out of it, it could have gone a lot further."
Summing up her advice to anyone suffering from a gambling addiction, Jo concluded: "Pick up the phone and don't be afraid to ask for help".
GamCare operates the National Gambling Helpline on Freephone 0808 8020 133 or via web chat at www.gamcare.org.uk, providing information, advice and support for anyone affected by problem gambling.
