Cheryl Cole 'Ate Everything' After Malaria Scare

In the summer of 2010, after a bitter and public split from her husband, Cheryl Cole and rumored beau Derek Hough flew to Tanzania on holiday. She caught malaria there and was, at one point, given no more than 24 hours to live.

For the first time in a very long while, Cheryl is speaking out on that dark moment in her life. The InStyle interview also marks her first major interview since the US X Factor debacle.

Speaking with the magazine about being diagnosed with malaria and fighting the disease, the singer and television star says it helped her reassess her priorities in life.

Just like the rest of us, until that moment, she'd been too focused on her career to pay attention to what was really important in life.

She also recalls how she was told to fatten up to boost the recovery process. “I just ate everything,” the singer says for the women's magazine.

“It opened my eyes to health and things I hadn’t focused on before. It’s now less about work, work, work and more about making time to chill and be with my friends an family,” Cheryl says of how malaria changed her perspective on life.

In the same interview, the star also talks about once going out for drinks with the late Amy Winehouse, and states the obvious by saying she can't handle booze.

“I’m awful at drinking. Don’t get us [sic] wrong, though – I like a drink if it’s a night out,” she says.

The latest issue of InStyle also brings a gorgeous photospread of Cheryl, which proves that even when she has a “fat day,” she can still be among the most glamorous and beautiful women in showbiz.

Cheryl Cole will be seen next in a cameo in “What to Expect When You're Expecting,” a rom-com with Jennifer Lopez and Cameron Diaz.

She's also believed to be in talks with Channel 4 to get her own show, something to do with fashion, as we also noted a while back.