Charlotte Church says press ‘tried to paint me as a figure of sin’

Singer Charlotte Church has said the press tried to “paint me as a figure of sin” during the time she claimed she had her phone hacked.

The 39-year-old has previously claimed she was hacked by the defunct News Of The World newspaper at the age of 16, after which the publisher News Group Newspapers paid substantial damages to her and offered “sincere apologies”.

Church told The Big Issue: “At that time the press intrusion was insane, there was all sorts of dark stuff going on with the media taking over the narrative.

“I know a lot of teenagers feel like things are unfair, but the sense of injustice I felt was so keen, it felt like a knife to the skin, reading these terrible things on the daily.

“Phone hacking was going on, but we didn’t know about it yet. Stories were in the paper all the time, and lots of things were blown up, misconstrued, made seedy, when they really weren’t.

“There was a lot of shame being thrown towards me. The press was desperately trying to make me a figure of sin and push this ‘fallen angel’ narrative. I knew it wasn’t right. The core of me knew that this was a f****** travesty.

“That sense of burning, fiery, ‘f*** you’ kept me protected. If I had let that shame in or internalised it, my life could have gone in a very different way.”

It comes as Church is due to appear on The Celebrity Traitors as part of a cast of 19 famous faces, including Thursday Murder Club star Celia Imrie, retired Olympic diver Tom Daley and actor Sir Stephen Fry, when the show launches on October 8.

The show will see the celebrities gather in the Highlands for the chance to win a cash prize of up to £100,000 for a charity of their choice.

The show, presented by Claudia Winkleman, sees contestants try to detect the traitors in the group while completing a series of challenges to win funds to contribute towards the prize pot.

If at the end of the series a traitor is left among the finalists, the faithfuls – those who are not traitors – lose out on the money and the traitor wins the full prize.

The Celebrity Traitors launches on Wednesday October 8 at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer. From then on there will be two episodes per week on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Since beginning her career in 1997, Church has achieved two UK top 10 singles in Crazy Chick and Call My Name, along with three UK top 10 albums.

The full interview can be read in this week’s Big Issue, which is available online and from street vendors.