X Factor's Lucy Spraggan admits online abuse made her contemplate suicide

Former X Factor star Lucy Spraggan has revealed how close she came to taking her own life after battling online abuse.

The singer competed in the show in 2012 but quit before it was eventually won by James Arthur.

Spraggan recently married her partner Georgina Gordon and credits her with saving her life.

She told ITV's Loose Women: "It's hard for people to understand what it's like for one piece of you to be taken away every single day, every time you read something.

"All of a sudden you become a shell of yourself that believes these things that are said about you and it got to a point where I thought: 'I can't do this anymore, this is it'. Then I met G and I was so happy."

Spraggan said she hit her lowest point when she contemplated crashing her own car.

She said: "I just got in my car and was driving down the motorway and just lost it. I can't explain what happened but there was definitely a moment and I put my foot to the floor and I was looking at the central reservation and thought 'I'm going to pull into that now, I'm just going to do it'."

She added that she was brought back from the edge when she saw her dog in the car next to her.

She said: "I thought 'I can do this to myself but I can't do it to you'. Once you've hit that you have to come back up."

Spraggan is releasing a new single, Dear You, about suicide and said the experience helped her release her demons.

She said: "I think you have to hit a certain point to come back up because if you haven't been rock-bottom you don't know how much further down you can go. Luckily I'm on the up now."

If you are in distress or need some support, the Samaritans are available 24 hours a day on 08457 90 90 90 or visit their website.

For those in the Republic of Ireland, the number is 1850 60 90 90.