cope with constant comparison to her sister Kylie Minogue

Speaking on Fearne Cotton's 'Happy Place' podcast, she said: "I've said this to my friends: 'I know that, if I wasn't mentally strong and I did have any kind of eating disorder or something, I wouldn't be alive now.' That is fact.

"It was so brutal, and it went on for years."

Dannii has a curvier body shape than her sibling, and admits it was hard to deal with so many "nasty comments" when "slim" was the only body shape "accepted" in her and Kylie's heyday.

She said: "I was compared to my sister, who's always had a completely different body shape our entire lives.

"I wasn't living up to her body. At the time, the only body shape that was accepted was slim.

"I was a square trying to fit into a hole. You read back now how nasty the comments were."

Despite the body bashing, Dannii went on to achieve plenty of success in her career, including nine UK top 10 songs, and she also joined the panel of TV talent show 'The X Factor' around its peak.

Dannii was a judge for four series, from 2007 to 2010, but eventually realised she "didn't want to be a part of it any more", and she "dug deep" before announcing her departure.

She added: "On my last season of 'X Factor', 20 million people watched the final, but I just got to a point where I didn't want to be a part of it any more.

"I thought, this show is going that way. In my soul, I'm going in a completely different direction.

"I dug deep into myself and found some strength [to quit]."