Leona Lewis on drinking, road rage, and hotel trashing

She’s famed for her squeaky clean ways but Leona Lewis has told Guilty Pleasures that behind closed doors she’s trashing hotel rooms and getting so hammered that she pukes.

The X Factor warbler revealed a simple bout of road rage can send her off the rails.

‘Men always feel like they can take the micky out of women on the road and I don’t like it,’ the 28-year-old Bleeding Love beauty bleated.

Incensed recently by one aggressive male driver, Leona told how she took it out on her champagne flutes in a fit of rage.

‘I smashed up [my] hotel room [because] I was angry. I gave a table a kick and I didn’t actually think it would fall over. I [normally] do it so that it won’t damage things but things got smashed. Champagne glasses broke. I had bad road rage,’ she admitted.

And when she’s not throwing a wobbly, Lewis is grateful that her pals are on hand to hold her hair when she’s so drunk she’s sick.

‘We usually go out. The other night we went out to a show to see RnB superstars in Wembley Arena. Faith Evans was there, Kelly Price, Mario, Sisqo, it was so fun. We were dancing for about five hours! We do fun stuff like that and go out to bars. They are the kind of friends I can get roaring drunk around and let loose. They have seen my worst side 150 times! They have been there through the ups and downs, the hair holding when I’m so drunk I’m sick.’

And in between her raucous partying,  Leona is thrilled to release her first festive EP, Christmas, With Love, which features her upbeat tune One More Sleep – the video of which sees the singer lording it up with her real-life friends.

‘It’s me and my mates. They wanted me to cast a bunch of actors but that wasn’t happening because I wanted it to be realistic. I feel like they are a handsome bunch!’ she beamed, promising the light-hearted fun in the video (which includes a Christmas dinner food fight) is tame compared to what they get up to in reality.

‘We are usually worse than that. They were on their best behaviour and still they were a bit mental. They were chucking s*** around the kitchen. My friend has dreads and we were putting flour in his hair as he can’t wash it – he wanted to kill us! He was shouting “Don’t touch my hair!” It was so much fun.’

[Originally published Metro, Guilty Pleasures, Wednesday 3 December 2013]