Roughly ten years ago, despite being on top of the world as the leader of the hottest girl group around, The Pussycat Dolls, artist Nicole Scherzinger was having some of the toughest years of her life. In the newest issue of Cosmopolitan UK, which she appears on the cover, the singer is sharing her story and coming clean with the troubles and demons of her past. Most notably: bulimia.

"It's sad to see how I wasted my life. I had such a great life on the outside, the Dolls were on top of the world but I was miserable on the inside," she tells the mag. "I'm never letting that happen again; you only get one life –– I was 27 only once."

Scherzinger's spread touches on the very moment she knew she had a problem –– when she blacked out during a Pussycat Dolls tour. "I had started losing my voice," she says. "I couldn't sing at shows, and then I remember my manager finding me passed out on the floor in Malta or in the south of France. I thought, 'I'm going to lose everything I love if I don't love myself.'"

From then on, Scherzinger's path appears to have been one of discovering herself and finding her confidence. Today, still strikingly beautiful yet holding a level of sureness she was missing during her years in the limelight, the X-Factor star explains that she forgets her shyness by "making everything about others" and not thinking about herself. "That's what I did on The X-Factor –– I can be goofy and playful when it's about the acts."

It goes without saying that Scherzinger is just fine today, but it's still a difficult issue for her to bring up. She's doing so in Cosmo UK with the hopes of helping others recover and rid themselves of the "horrible, paralysing disease."

"I did it and that's why it's so important for me to share my story. I felt so alone ... but I made myself so alone. You hide it from the world, you isolate yourself. But you can beat it –– do not give up because you're so special and you're meant for such great things."

Scherzinger's issue of Cosmo UK drops tomorrow, July 3. Take a look at the stunning cover below:

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