November 3, 2008 15:23

Opera singer Katherine Jenkins admits taking drugs

Welsh star says she's ashamed of her past

Katherine Jenkins has admitted that she took class A drugs including MDMA, cocaine and ecstasy during her university days.

The Welsh opera singer, 28, told The Daily Mail that "taking drugs is the biggest regret of my life", before admitting that she was "very nervous" about confessing her past to the general public.

Jenkins said that she was introduced to drugs by friends while studying at London's Royal College Of Music.

"We'd all been drinking and when we got back to my friend's house, I was offered cocaine by someone," she recalled. "Having said no so many times before, curiosity just got the better of me and I said yes. I thought it would be fun."

Despite not enjoying the experience, Jenkins says she went on to take the drug "a handful of times" after that, and admitted taking other illegal substances too.

"I also tried ecstasy and MDMA, which is the powder form of ecstasy," she added. "That had a totally different effect [to cocaine], a really massive one. I took half a pill the first time, and it made me feel excited, passionate, in love with everyone and everything, and really happy, very very happy.

"I took ecstasy pills after that four or five times, and MDMA too. But afterwards that made me feel worse than cocaine. I didn't want to live the next day, it made me feel so depressed. It was horrible, just horrible."

Jenkins says she stopped taking drugs after signing her record deal in 2003.

Last week it was revealed that the singer had signed a £6 million record deal with American label Warner Music in a bid to crack the US market.