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Tragic TV star Charlotte Dawson claimed her ex-husband Scott Miller persuading her to have an abortion was 'one of the most destructive forces in her life'

Published: 05:54 EST, 11 May 2014 | Updated: 07:43 EST, 11 May 2014

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Friends of Charlotte Dawson have revealed how the tragic TV star was caught up in a web of fear and depression in the months leading up to her death - and was still struggling to get over an abortion from years earlier.

They told how the model felt she had to ‘get out of Sydney’ and had been branded as the ‘dreadful woman who destroyed’ her Olympian ex-husband’s career.

One close friend, designer Alex Perry, told interviewers that Dawson described the fact her then husband, swimmer Scott Miller, had influenced her to terminate a pregnancy in 2000 as ‘one of the most destructive forces in her life’.

Final interview: An emotional Charlotte Dawson spoke of feeling lonely and holding in a lot of pain and sadness on her last ever piece to camera for Channel 7's Sunday Night

Untimely death: The glamorous model and TV personality was found dead in her Sydney apartment in February

On location: She spoke to cameras from a beautiful Bali resort

Alex Perry, who said his friendship with Dawson was ‘instant – she loved me like a brother’, said she had ‘always wanted to be a mother’ and suffered from the fact she had terminated the pregnancy with Miller.

‘That was a turning point in Charlotte’s life,' he said.

Before her suicide in February this year, Dawson was unemployed with money worries and no-one to comfort and protect her, despite her wide circle of friends and work mates.

In the late model and television star’s final interview, broadcast on Sunday night on the Seven Network Australia, Dawson and friends of her family spoke of her loving childhood, but her sexual molestation as a child, and her lack of self worth.

'Destructive force': Dawson told friends that her then husband Scott Miller had persuaded her to have an abortion in 2000. She said the incident still remained a 'destructive force' in her life

Sisterly love: Robin Barclay said that she hoped her sister's death wasn't in vain

Close friend: Alex Perry said the model was still struggling to come to terms with the abortion she had in 2000

Another friend Billy Allen, with whom Dawson had designed a homewares range, said when she had arrived in Bali in January ‘her words were she needed to get out of Sydney’.

Mr Allen, who was with Dawson when she watched the 60 Minutes interview with Miller about his drug addiction, said she had been worried about the show.

‘Charlotte was very openly concerned about that programme,’ Mr Allen said, ‘she was quite depressed.’

The TV viewing was at the apartment where Dawson was found.

The star's sister Vicky Dawson said Charlotte had arrived into the family in the 1960s as a loved adopted younger sister, but that the pretty little girl 'was molested by a neighbour when she was very young . . . it affected her sense of self worth'.

Vicky said Charlotte was working as a secretary, 'a normal, happy, naughty teenager', in Auckland, New Zealand when was discovered by a model agent.

Healer: For the interview, cameras followed Charlotte on a visit to a Bali healer who told her that she was 'holding pain and sadness'

As a young girl: She had suffered from depression for a number years and was also hospitalised in 2012 after coming under attack from internet trolls

Charlotte and her sister Vicky said in taped excerpts that the model's split from Scott Miller had left her feeling targeted as the 'dreadful woman' who had 'destroyed' Miller's career and wronged 'an Australian hero. She lost her job. Nobody would touch her.'

‘I can't be fearful, that's my worst enemy,’ Dawson said during the interview,in Bali.

‘It's everybody's worst enemy: fear of the future, especially when you don't have one to look at.’

She chose to be interviewed in Bali as it was the place she always came 'to heal', first travelling there after her split from Scott Miller in 2000.

'If I ever have problems, anxiety, depression, if anything hits - I come here to heal,' she said.

Following the airing of Channel 7's exclusive on Dawson, her homeware range, which she had been working on with close friend, designer Billy Allen, will go on sale with 80 per cent of the proceeds going to Dawson' preferred charities - Lifeline, Community Brave, ACON, Angels Goals and The Smile Foundation.

The website where Charlotte's own designed throw cushions and drink coasters will go on sale on a website that will go live on Friday afternoon.

For support, please contact Lifeline 13 11 14.