Lamar Odom hit "rock bottom" when Khloe Kardashian caught him "getting high" with another woman in a motel room.
The 37-year-old basketball player - who split from the 'Keeping Up With the Kardashians' star in 2013 after four years of marriage - admitted things got "dark as hell" when he was gripped by cocaine addiction and he is ashamed of his "scumbag" behaviour.
He said: "As the years went on, and I got into my 30s, my career was winding down, and things just got out of control.
"When I was like 32, 33 ... I just wanted to get high all the time. That's it, just get high. And things got dark as hell.
"One of the darkest places I've ever been was when I was in a motel room, getting high with this chick, and my wife (at the time) walked in. That probably was like rock bottom.
"My d**k and my habit took me down all the roads that you don't ever wanna go down. A lot of great men are fools to that. Fools to that. There are probably a lot of young dudes out there who hear my story and think that it could never happen to them. That they're untouchable.
Man ... Nobody is untouchable. Nobody in this life is immune to pain."
Lamar nearly died following a drink and drug binge at the Love Ranch brothel in Nevada in 2015 and he realised just how bad the situation was when he saw Khloe - who was still considered his next of kin because they hadn't proceeded with their divorce - was there by his side.
Writing for 'The Player's Tribune', he recalled: "I was laying there, looking up at the ceiling, and the doctors kept coming in and standing over me and saying some stuff. Then they'd leave. Then they'd come back. Leave, come back. Leave again, come back again. Or maybe I was just going in and out of sleep.
"My ex-wife was there in the room with me. After all the s**t I had done, I was surprised to see her. Honestly, that's when I knew that I was probably in bad shape.
"At some point, the main doctor came in and told me what had happened. He said, 'Mr. Odom, you've been in a coma for the last four days. Do you understand?' I couldn't talk. So I just nodded.
"He said, 'It's a miracle that you're here. We didn't think you were going to make it.' "
These days, Lamar is sober and credits his kids Destiny, 18, and 16-year-old Lamar Jr. - who he has with former partner Liza Morales - with helping him stay on the right path.
He said: "I'm sober now. But it's an everyday struggle. I have an addiction. I'll always have an addiction. It never goes away. I mean, I want to get high right now. But I know that I can't if I want to be here for my children."
