Chantelle Houghton has opened up to Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford on ITV1's This Morning about the end of her relationship with Alex Reid.

In between the tears, Chantelle managed to insist that her romance with cage fighter Alex was for real,

“I loved Alex. The day that I met him, I fell for him and I love him now... and I wish he was sitting next to me now, and I wished things were different. But this is where we are.”

However, the Celebrity Big Brother winner insisted that despite the on/off nature of their relationship, they won’t be getting back together again,

“Me and Alex have split and you know, what's done is done and there isn't any way back... but I've just got to get on with the future now, and move forward with work and everything.”

“There's things about Alex that I didn't know when I first met him, and he wasn't the person I met. He didn't turn into the person that I met in the beginning. He was a different person,” Chantelle continued to explain.

“I was really happy and it was everything I wanted, especially when I found out that I was pregnant. We were over the moon and we were so happy... and then stuff happened and it just went from bad to worse and I tried to stick at it because I always wanted a mum and dad and a family. But there came a point where it had to end,”

Single mum

Now a single mum, Chantelle admits that she’s finding raising daughter Dolly on her own a struggle,

“I never appreciated what it was like to be a single mum before, and I'm in a very fortunate situation that I don't have money worries, but and its hard going through a break up and being mum as well – it's really tough and I take my hat off women out there that do..."

“I just want to sort this mess out. It's like the saying, I've been to hell and back and I feel like I'm in that hell now. I know I can see the future and I will be happy again, but right now, things are really tough.”

Do you have sympathy for Chantelle?