As fans of the hit ABC show The Bachelorette, eagerly await season 9 when it premieres on Monday, May 27, a former Bachelorette star revealed that her experience was not all fun and games.

Meredith Phillips, who was The Bachelorette in 2004, admitted in a recent interview that she suffered from alcoholism during taping of the show.

"I was drunk every night," Phillips told People of her experience of being courted by 25 bachelors in 2004."But I knew my tolerance levels. Alcoholics are good at that. I figured out how much I could drink and function."

The Portland native said her drinking problem began in college as a student at Oregon University where it "began with a lot of 'Sunday Fundays.'

"I would split a bottle of champagne with friends at brunch, then move on to wine," she said and later she began "drinking 12 beer bongs by 12 p.m., even if I woke up at 10 a.m... I thought it was cool that I was a chick and could do that."

Phillips said the peak of her alcohol addiction was when she drank 20 bottles of wine per week. During that time she'd wake up every day feeling like she "was hit by a truck."

She realized that she had to work on becoming sober when she realized that death was certain with alcoholism.

"'I realized I was going to kill myself," Phillips said, and that "there wasn't another path for me other than to stop."

Phillips has been sober for 150 days now and she is "finally starting to live again." Seh completed two months of inpatient treatment at Hope by the Sea in San Juan Capistrano, Calif.

The former model and makeup artist was 30 years old when she became the star of the show's second season. She landed the reality show after she was rejected by Bob Guiney in season 4 of The Bachelor as the third runner-up. On season 2 of The Bachelorette, she chose Ian McKee, an equities researcher, but they later split in 2005.

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