Winning Australian Idol helped fund Kate DeAraugo's drug addiction.

Kate DeAraugo found fame overnight when she became the third-ever winner of Australian Idol, aged just 18.

While it was an "amazing experience", DeAraugo's newfound success opened a dark door.

Drugs became easily accessible. Soon, her winnings were funding an ice addiction.

DeAraugo found her life spiralling out of control. In 2017, the performer was convicted of drug possession, drug driving and weapons possession.

It was a turning point.

Now, she's healthy, happy and has just welcomed her second child with her partner, Shannon Riseley.

This is her journey from Idol fame to addiction and back.

Watch this video on how Ice destroys lives. Post continues after video.

Winning Australian Idol was an "amazing experience" DeAraugo told Mamamia, but it was also incredibly daunting.

"I was just this country girl who liked to sing songs and all of a sudden I'm walking down the street and having people know my name. Some people loved you and some people hated you.

"It was just a really, really crazy time in my life."

Just a year later, she was offered an opportunity to team up with three other young, famous Aussie singers. Together, they were called Young Divas and the point of their banding together wasn't to be a girl group, but to promote their own solo careers.

From memory, DeAraugo says it was really "meant to be just one single and a little tour."

"But then it took off and everyone sort of scrambled," she recalled. "They said, 'Well. We're onto something here' and it just became something so much bigger."

Kate DeAraugo won Australian Idol in 2005. Image: Getty.

They released a cover version of Donna Summer's 1989 single "This Time I Know It's for Real" in May 2006, to attract attention for their tour. It peaked at number two on the ARIA Singles Chart and remained in the top ten for 14 consecutive weeks.

"We all sort of found ourselves in Young Divas and it gave me the opportunity to do unbelievable things," DeAraugo said. "We got to sing at some iconic events, we got to tour and do all the stuff I think little girls and boys dream about when they are kids."

Amid DeAraugo's success, she began experimenting with drugs —- although she admitted to being addicted to both food and relationships prior to that. First, it was cocaine, then nitrous oxide and eventually, in 2009, methamphetamine, also known as ice.

The money the singer earned at such a young age from her high-profile career helped to propel her addiction into something she says wasn't "acceptable" within her circle.

"[The money] gave me the means to support a bigger habit quicker," she confirmed. "But I think my obsession and compulsion to use drugs would have been there without the money, anyway."

Kate DeAraugo was part of Young Divas, which also included Australian Idol season one finalist Paulini, season two finalist Ricki-Lee Coulter and season three runner-up Emily Williams. Image: Getty.

Hitting rock bottom.

DeAraugo first entered rehab at the age of 24 and in our interview, she reflected on being "so filled with ego" at that stage in her life.

"I thought I knew better. I thought I had it all under control and I didn't want to admit or accept that I had a problem," she explained. "[In my mind] it was bad, but it wasn't as bad as all those other people I was listening to in rehab."

Looking back, DeAraugo wasn't ready to admit she was suffering from addiction because she didn't "respect" the cruelty, or the power of the disease.

There was a turning point though, the singer said. It was pivotal. Not perfect, but a defining moment DeAraugo goes back to as the start of her recovery from addiction.

Kate DeAraugo. Image: Getty.

"It wasn't a big, loud, dramatic moment," she recalled. "But for me, it was in a really quiet moment where I just caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror, during a window of sanity — because I was insane by the end of it — and I went, 'Wow. Who are you?'

"Until then, I just knew that I had to change. I wish that day was the last day I used, but there were still some things that had to happen. But I surrendered. Surrendered to the fact that I couldn't do it on my own. I needed help to get clean and not just to get clean, but to stay clean."

And there were many bumps in the road.

In 2017, the performer was convicted of drug possession, drug driving and weapons possession.

The path to happiness.

Seven years on, DeAraugo couldn't be happier.

She just welcomed her second child with Shannon and recently celebrated seven years of being clean.

DeAraugo shared a photo of her cradling little Noah on her chest after giving birth, with a beaming Shannon alongside.

The singer gave a special mention to her midwives who "made one of the most vulnerable times in my life truly beautiful".

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A post shared by Kate DeAraugo | Singer & Podcast Host (@katedearaugo_official)

DeAraugo hopes her story can inspire others who are struggling with addiction.

"If you're out there feeling lost in addiction, thinking there's no way out, I'm here to tell you that's not true. I was there. I had lost everything—everyone," she wrote on Instagram last week, celebrating seven years of being clean.

"I thought I couldn't survive without drugs and alcohol. But I finally got out of my own way, listened to the people who wanted to help, and took it one day at a time."

Rehabilitation wasn't easy, she said, but it was worth it.

"Today, I have a life I never thought possible — my family, my home, my peace," she continued. "I've faced life's highest highs and lowest lows without needing a drink or a drug to get through.

"If you're struggling, know this: as long as you have two feet on the ground, there is hope. Recovery is possible. And it's waiting for you.

Kate DeAraugo with her partner Shannon. Image: Supplied.

Speaking to Mamamia previously, DeAraugo said she hoped to dismantle stereotypes surrounding addiction.

"I wanted to help remove the stigma of addiction and who addicts are," she said. "I know up until I found myself in the world of addiction that I had this preconceived idea of what addicts and who addicts are.

"Addiction doesn't discriminate. It can come for anybody. It can be alive in anybody and I wanted to help people understand."

Nobody, the singer clarified, wakes up and wants to be an alcoholic or an addict and "burn their lives to the ground."

"I lost everything in addiction. I lost my job. I lost career opportunities. I didn't have any money because I was just spending it on using and I lost friendships," she said. "I lost beautiful relationships and I lost the internal things too. My morals, my values, my dignity and any pride or respect I had for myself over the years.

"It was a spiritual death."

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A post shared by Kate DeAraugo | Singer & Podcast Host (@katedearaugo_official)

These days, DeAraugo is singing again and hosts the podcast, Why Do I Feel This Way?.

Another one of her most proud moments was starting her family with her partner Shannon in December 2022, when they welcomed Hudson.

"I'm really blessed," she said. "I thought that maybe I'd missed my opportunity to be a mum and to have a family of my own and it just brings me so much peace and so much joy to be a mother."

"And I'm proud," she continued. Proud every day that I get to be his mother and I get to show up for him every day as the best version of myself."

Recovery isn't a perfect, linear journey. DeAraugo wants to make that clear, but she's grateful and every single day, she is working to keep her wonderful life.

"I'm still human and some days are hard. Life is life," she said in 2023. "I lost my mother really tragically last year and it is painful.

"But I'm just grateful. So grateful that I don't have to use a drink or a drug as a solution to my life problems anymore."

This article was first published in November 2023 and has been updated.

Feature Image: Getty, Instagram/katedearaugo_official.