NEW YORK (AP) — Miss USA Tara Conner, who nearly lost her crown for hard-partying in New York nightclubs, says in the upcoming issue of People magazine that her recent stint in rehab was a wake-up call.“I didn’t think I had an issue — but I was willing to do anything to save my job. ... I’ve realised that I suffer from the disease of alcoholism and addiction,” says Conner (pictured), who logged in 31 days at the Caron Foundation rehab centre in Wernersville, Pennsylvania.

“I was an equality-opportunity (user) — I would try anything once,” Conner, 21, tells the magazine in its February 12 issue.

At a much-publicised press conference in December, Donald Trump, who owns the Miss USA pageant, said the contrite Conner could hold onto her crown if she changed her ways. She then entered rehab. In her interview in People magazine, her first since leaving treatment, Conner admits that she’s dabbled in cocaine. “Cocaine was one of the drugs that I did use,” she says. “It’s hard to look back at that.”

Alcohol, though, was her biggest vice.

“I’m an alcoholic. It was a craving thing — once I put it in my body, I would start craving more,” says Conner, who notes she drank heavily but wasn’t “getting sloppy drunk and dancing on tables.” As for reports that her wild ways also included promiscuity, she says, “I would talk to more than one guy at once — it doesn’t mean that I was sexually active with every one of these people.”