The partner of Darius Campbell Danesh has opened up about his sudden death.

The Pop Idol star was found dead at his flat in Rochester, Minnesota last August after taking chloroethane. 

And his girlfriend Lauren Cheek has since revealed that the 41-year-old was living with an undiagnosed heart problem in the lead-up to his death. 

He was also struggling with a broken neck, a lasting legacy from a car crash in 2010. 

Glasgow Times:

Lauren, 30, told the Sun: “Darius was living with this heart condition that he didn’t know he had.

“So many things could have taken him, but this one thing did, and he died in his sleep.

“His mum told me they only found out after they did the autopsy. His heart was twice the size it was supposed to be, which was fitting because that is genuinely how he was — he had so much love.

“The autopsy also found he was living with a broken neck, but he refused to get help or complain about it.

"I think he used (chloroethane) because he was in so much pain and he didn’t want to take pills, not even aspirin.

“That’s what killed him — the substance mixed with his heart and he couldn’t take it.”

The Bearsden singer-songwriter and actor – who was known as Darius Danesh when he made his first bid for fame in ITV show Popstars in 2001 – also appeared on the first Pop Idol, which was won by Will Young.

After Pop Idol, Campbell Danesh turned down Simon Cowell’s offer of a record deal and signed with producer Steve Lillywhite, whose credits include U2 and the Rolling Stones.

Fellow Pop Idol contestants Will Young and Gareth Gates paid tribute to the singer after his death was announced, describing him as “driven, courageous and gentle”.