Just when she was getting back on track after rehab and her split from Tom Crane, Sarah Harding has found herself in despicable situation of Chris Brown magnitude.
Before Christmas, the tabloids had photographed Harding with a new "gentleman" friend who had reportedly put a smile on her face. As it turns out, he put more on her face on New Year's Day.
Today, Harding has gone public claiming that her Dutch ex-boyfriend 35-year-old Theo De Vries smeared blood all over her face during their getaway to Innsbruck, Austria, which left her with a bandaged arm and bruises.
Recalling the attack, she said: "I have a black eye and bruising. He had me by the neck, on the floor, and I kicked him to get him off me. He grabbed me by my hair - throwing my head on the floor. While he had me by the hair, he was pulling me across the floor. He was dragging me around. He was smacking my head on the floor. He bit my ear. And when I kicked him to try and get him off me, I got his nose and he was bleeding. He smeared the blood all over my face so it was all over my clothes. I've got bruises on my bum. Bruises on my legs. The damage to my arm is probably the worst. This is where they bandaged me in hospital as they thought I might have fractured it."
Sarah - who ended her romance with DJ Crane in November - met Theo in rehab in Cape Town, South Africa, where she was treated for alcoholism and depression.
Before things got physical, the 30-year-old pop star claims Theo - who was being treated for addictions to alcohol and crack cocaine - "goaded" her about being a "B-class singer" and a "f***ing alcoholic".
In an interview with The Sun, Sarah - who admits she'd had a gin and tonic but was not intoxicated - added: "We met in rehab and I was at a real low in my life. We got on really well and he was a completely different person when we were in rehab. We just decided to give it a go. When we came back to London, things just didn't seem to be the same... During the row he said, 'You're nothing but a B-class singer. You are just a f***ing alcoholic. You have got no friends. He was really, really horrible. Any insecurities I had, he used them against me. He was goading me. The abuse carried on and on and on 'til I'd had enough. He got so horrible I threw a coffee cup at him. It missed."
Shame. Partly because she missed, and partly because the lovely Theo is claiming Harding attacked him. He's saying: "Sarah was drunk and may have been injured as he tried to 'restrain' her during the violent confrontation."
In response, Sarah said: "I'm not going to lie, I had a gin and tonic at the airport, but I was sober at this point. I wasn't drunk at all. He didn't seem drunk but he just completely changed character… I think in a way I was on a rebound. I think that p***ed him off. I called him Tom a few times by mistake. He hated that. Probably when we were rowing - probably because I used to shout at Tom. Now I think he's full of s***. Reading what he said in The Sun, I thought, 'Oh my God'. I never threw an ashtray at him. I threw a mug at him, because he was goading me. He was being so foul to me. They do say it's frowned upon to get together with someone in rehab, but I thought it was a safer option because we could both stay clean together and sober… Towards Christmas it was getting harder with everyone celebrating and he started saying we could have a few drinks because no one would notice while we were over there. On the way to the slopes he was buying booze for when he was skiing. We had one night when we drank quite a bit. He just did not want to stop. I thought I could drink with the best of them, but he was drinking three bottles of red wine. I am usually asleep after the first bottle. He was bad. I felt like s*** the next day. I was annoyed with him and I was annoyed with myself. That was when I realised we were not good for each other. It was tainted. Like I said, I cut it short by four days. Because I had to go back to the hotel when my plane was cancelled, my taxi driver couldn't get up the slope because of the weather. My phone was dead so the taxi driver called Theo and he told him, 'She can carry her own f****** cases'. He was drunk. I had seen him bring wine into the room earlier. When I got into the room I could see there were three empty bottles of wine in the room. I asked what was his problem. He started getting more and more aggressive and abusive towards me. "
By way of retort, Theo managed: "She's a bitch for trying to blame this all on me. I've never hit anyone in my life. I did restrain her but nothing more."
Chin up, Sarah, speaking out about it is often the hardest part and you've done that now. Onwards and upwards.