Blige 'lost friends after giving up alcohol'

R n' B singer Mary J Blige lost a lot of her friends when she gave up alcohol, she has claimed.

The star has battled both drug and alcohol addictions during her lengthy career, and decided to give up the party lifestyle after meeting her now-husband Kendu Isaacs in 2000.

Blige insists she had plenty of friends when she was going out and spending lots of money on drink, but when she became tee-total, many of the people she considered close suddenly disappeared.

"When I said I'm not drinking anymore, I'm not hanging out anymore - it was almost like people ran away from me.

"They just vanished, and it hurt me really, really bad because there was a point where I believed those people loved and liked me, I really did."