British songstress Cheryl Cole shuns her friends and family before stepping out on stage as she doesn't want to "blub".

The Girls Aloud star was on the road for her debut headlining solo concert tour A Million Lights throughout October.

Cole - who recently reunited with Girls Aloud to celebrate their 10 year anniversary - has revealed that she'd rather be on her own before heading out in front of the crowds.

She told Fabulous magazine: “The tour’s been a brand-new experience for me, after 10 years with the girls it’s really different. But they are never off the phone. They all came to the O2 in London to support me. It was crazy! I don’t like fuss backstage – I hate drama. I don’t want to know if so-and-so is in the audience until afterwards. It just puts unnecessary pressure on me.

She added: “When I finish everyone can come backstage for a drink, but do not come anywhere near me before. And that includes the girls. It’s enough trying to perform for up to 20,000 people – giving that amount of energy is hard. If you feel emotional on top of that, it’s worse. I knew if they saw me they’d say: ‘You’re going to be amazing’ and I’d blub and then I’d be no good.

"So I was like: ‘I don’t want to see them, I don’t want to know where they are.’ But as I stepped on stage, I knew exactly where they were sitting. I could sense them.”

Cole is famed for her fabulous figure, but insists that she doesn't follow a "strict diet".

She explained: “It's too hard when you’re travelling. To think of yourself on a diet is really unhealthy, it needs to just be how you eat every day. I find fad diets crazy. It makes you so anxious. You have a chocolate, or whatever, and you feel guilty! No, that’s not for me. I’ve enough stress in my life without feeling guilty about eating chocolate.”