The X Factor winner takes drastic action to ‘make life better’-Meghna Amin-Entertainment – Metro

An X Factor star has made a huge change to his life, 14 years after winning the competition (Picture: Talkback Thames, ITV)

The X Factor winner Matt Cardle has revealed he’s made a big change to his life, but the outcome has been ‘great’.

The 41-year-old star rose to fame on Simon Cowell’s singing competition in 2010, which saw Rebecca Ferguson and One Direction follow in second and third place, respectively.

After hitting the limelight, Matt was affected by life in the music industry, and checked into rehab at the end of 2013 with addiction issues relating to alcohol and prescription drugs.

In the years that followed, he’s spoken about his battle with addiction, and has now revealed he’s decided to go sober, having stopped drinking in January.

Declaring that it’s been better for writing his ‘best music’, the singer said: ‘Better things happen when I have a clean and clear head.’

He continued to The Sun: ‘I made a conscious ­decision to knock drinking on the head.

Matt Cardle rose to fame on The X Factor in 2010 (Picture: Ken McKay/Talkback Thames/REX/Shutterstock)

Matt has been open about his struggles with addiction after The X Factor (Picture: AP)

‘I wanted to see what happened when I got, not clean because it wasn’t a problem so to speak, but sober and focused again to see what life is like.

‘Life is always better when I’m not drinking. Life has been great.’

‘You don’t see the fruits of being sober until you really give it a chance,’ he went on, saying going sober has helped his writing, personal life, and ‘everything’.

In 2018, Matt candidly spoke about his struggles with addiction, saying he was ‘weirdly glad’ that he went to ‘that dark place’ because it led to him creating his fourth studio album, Time to be Alive.

He said at the time: ‘It’s from being through rehab and talking about everything, and realising that you can’t run from the things that hurt you and you have to face up to life.

The singer stopped drinking in January, for a ‘better life’ (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/REX)

‘It’s Ying and Yang. There are beautiful thing that happen and dark and painful things… And, I was running away, and that’s where it got me at the end of the day.’

‘I’m weirdly glad I went to that dark place, because behind a lot of art is a lot pain. I’m strangely thankful for that pain, so that I could pour it back into this [album],’ he added.

After his success on The X Factor, Matt went on to release four studio albums, with his latest music venture, an EP titled Purple Crayon about his addiction to valium, released in 2021.

He’s kept his private life away from the spotlight over the last decade and a half, but now features in stage performances including West End musical & Juliet.

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