Singer Charlotte Church has opened up about her experience of being "sexualised, patronised and ridicules" by the press in a candid interview. While speaking to the Guardian , the Welsh performer spoke about living her young life in the limelight, the media attention that followed and her wellbeing rural retreat, The Dreaming, in Powys. The singer rose to fame when she was just 11 years old, after she sang a rendition of Pie Jesu over the phone during an episode of ITV 's This Morning in 1997.
She then performed on an ITV talent show, went on to release her own classical album and perform all over the world, garnering the title "voice of an angel". For the latest TV and showbiz gossip sign up to our newsletter . Although she said she was "grateful" for the experience, the singer also experienced the darker side of fame as she grew older.
Church experienced intense media scrutiny in her teen years and was the victim of phone hacking by the now-defunct News of the World. Speaking to the Guardian, she said: "The narrative of who I was in the world, was taken from me, and made into something salacious, or something to be ridiculed." The singer spoke of her time on BBC's Question Time in 2015 as an example, in which she discussed how drought linked to climate change helped cause the Syrian civil war, which was researched at the time.
She told the Guardian: "When I said it, it was all over the papers: 'Voice of an Angel, Brain of Angel Delight: Charlotte Church blames climate chang.
