Cheryl Cole has revealed that she dated an abusive junkie when she was 16-year-old.

The singer, now 28, pours her heart into new Will.i.am duet Craziest Things where she sings about being bullied.

Cheryl released her third album, A Million Lights recently and says that the love affair was "the worst relationship of my life."

"We say the craziest things like I love you, hate you, don't need you, f**k you," she sings on the track.

But she tells Britain's The Sun newspaper that the fling really affected her and the lyrics are very realistic to what happened.

"We swore, we fought, we did everything it says in that song," she revealed. "People think it's passionate and fun, but it's aggressive and wrong. I was depressed and poorly. I had to end it for my health."

Cheryl told We Love Pop that she was with the boy for two years while living in a rough Newcastle neighbourhood.