It’s my fault Cheryl Cole has malaria, says dancer
CHERYL Cole’s close friend has spoken for the first time about the guilt he feels over her contracting deadly malaria.
US dancer Derek Hough, 25, blames himself because he convinced the singer to go with him to Tanzania, where she caught the disease.
Cheryl was said yesterday to be making good progress at a private London clinic despite her being close to death last week. But Derek said he was still “worried sick” about The X Factor judge, who he has visited regularly. He said: “We might have gone somewhere else if it had been up to her.
“I’ve been worried sick about her. When I’m not by her side I’m praying for her.”
Cheryl, 27, is still too weak to talk after catching the worst strain of the disease from a mosquito bite while on a luxury break. She is being given oxygen and is on a drip.
Sources say her estranged husband, England footballer Ashley Cole, has been calling twice a day from holiday while she has been ill.