How Bachelorette Meredith Phillips Hid Her Secret Alcoholism Battle From Producers And Viewers; Reveals Drunk Every night "I Drank 20 Bottles Of Wine A Week"[VIDEO]

Former Bachelorette star Meredith Phillips reveals to People Magazine her secret battle with alcoholism. The alcoholic bachelorette was drinking 20 bottles of wine per week and reveals she was drunk while filming "The Bachelorette." How did Meredith fool everybody on the show  and hide her secret battle with alcoholism on national TV?

The Bachelorette, who is now 150 days sober, was once consuming so much wine that she almost died. How could "The Bachelorette" producers and bachelors not catch on to her secret? How could the viewers not tell that their beloved brunette "Bachelorette" had secret alcoholism?

Meredith Phillips admits, "I knew my tolerance levels. Alcoholics are good at that. I figured out how much can I drink and function."

The "Bachelorette" and former model said she had her "little tricks" to hide her alcoholism and save face; changing up grocery stores where she bought booze so cashiers didn't notice and comment on her problem and switching to boxed wine because it was easier to dispose of the empties. "Crushing one box saved the space of all those bottles," she said.

We wonder how she could cover up the smell on her breath having to kiss so many bachelors!

"I was drunk every night," the 39-year-old former model revealed.

"For years I'd wake up every day feeling like I was hit by a truck."

"I realized I was going to kill myself," she said. "There wasn't another path for me other than to stop."

She said her heavy drinking started when she was in a sorority at Oregon State University and took pride in her ability to down 12 beer bongs - drinking a brew through a funnel and tube - before noon.

She drank openly on her "Bachelorette" season, which ended with a marriage proposal from New York equities researcher Ian McKee. But the relationship was short-lived.

Their public breakup led her into a downward spiral of depression and more drinking, she said.

"It began with a lot of 'Sunday Fundays,'" she told the magazine. "I would split a bottle of champagne with friends at brunch, then move on to wine."

"My lowest point was when I realized my mother was in a hospital bed dying of cancer and I was at her house, drinking myself to death," she admitted. "I just didn't care."

A tipping point came when her brother finally confronted her and offered to pay for treatment in rehab.

She's now more than 150 days sober following treatment in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., and is back together - after a brief separation - with the high school sweetheart she married in 2011.

"I still have a lot of healing to do, but I'm feeling better every day," she told People. "It's not fun to start over again at 39 ... but life is short. And I have a second chance."

She is a trained chef with a published book called Date Night Cookbook.