Cheryl Cole: Ashley had 'mental breakdown' after our split

The Chelsea star struggled to cope in the aftermath of his marital breakdown to the singer and she was deeply concerned when she learnt his football club had offered to pay for therapy because he was so depressed.

Writing in her new autobiography, Cheryl: My Story, she revealed: "If I thought I was cracking up, people were telling me that Ashley was in an even worse state.

"'Cheryl, it's terrifying,' one friend said, and what she described made it sound like Ashley was going through a mental breakdown.

"'He's literally talking nonsense, he's got a beard and he's smoking and drinking loads.' Somebody else told me that Ashley had said something like, 'I don't want to be here any more.'

"I didn't believe he was seriously suicidal, but I was relieved to also hear that the club was trying to get him some help."

The Girls Aloud singer filed for divorce in 2010 after several different girls alleged the soccer star had cheated on her with them.

An open letter to Cheryl from one of his conquests, 27-year-old hairdresser Aimee Walton, has been published this week in which she tells the brunette beauty her life was a "living hell" after her affair.

In the letter published in Now magazine, Aimee said: "The next morning all I kept thinking about was that I'd slept with a married man. I felt like s**t. I'd never done that before.

"Ashley never explained to me why he cheated but I got the impression that he didn't like your independence because you'd be away for months.

"I now know you were so upset that you went to the lengths of taking tranquillisers. I'm so sorry to hear this.

"All I can say is that if I hadn't done what I did, you could still be married to Ashley, not knowing what he was really like."

Cheryl is now dating her back-up dancer Tre Holloway.