Musician Elle King battled substance abuse and mental illness after her divorce from Andrew Ferguson. King married Ferguson secretly in 2016, three weeks after meeting him at a bar. Not even her family knew she was married, she told People.
As for why she jumped into the marriage so fast, King claimed they were "two crazy, young people." "Before we even met, I had started kind of losing my mind," she said. "I was just searching for any kind of connection and realness — just f****** begging for love."
King and Ferguson had a lavish wedding planned on April 15, 2017, King even appearing on TLC's Say Yes To The Dress to pick her gown. She skipped the wedding, instead, to tour with the Eagles of Death Metal.
The marriage wasn't healthy for King, who left the relationship with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
"I was in a destructive marriage. I was at the lowest point in my life. I was not well," she told People. "I couldn't look people in the eyes. I literally couldn't leave my house for weeks at a time."
In April 2017, Ferguson was arrested and charged with domestic violence, a charge which was eventually dropped. King revealed their marriage at the same time she announced the couple was splitting, all in an Instagram post asking for kindness as she "lost her mind."
She took to substances to avoid her emotions. "I was partying so hard to numb emotions that I couldn't handle at the time. I realized it was just prolonging the inevitable of dealing with them. And what you have to do, unfortunately, is just feel them and that sucks," she said. "I thought that by doing drugs it would buy me time to feeling better. And when that wasn't working, I just realized I was in this other cycle and that I was creating it myself. And I realized I needed to cut all the darkness out of my life."
King claimed she saved her life by admitting to the problem. "I think that reaching out [for help] saved my life. I don't wanna think of any other outcome that could have happened," she said. "I feel like the more I talk about it, maybe it could reach somebody — reach somebody that feels alone."
Singer King will release a new album, Shake the Spirit, detailing the experiences with Ferguson and her year of recovery on Friday.
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