Charlotte Church
Charlotte Church Facebook/CharlotteChurch

Charlotte Church shared that she was painted as the bad guy publicly as a young girl.

The Welsh singer previously claimed that she was a victim of phone hacking when she was 16 years old, and blamed the now-defunct newspaper, News of the World.

The publisher, News Group Newspapers, allegedly paid a huge amount to her and offered their 'sincere apologies'.

'At that time the press intrusion was insane, there was all sorts of dark stuff going on with the media taking over the narrative,' Church said in an interview with The Big Issue.

Hacking Nightmares

The pop singer became involved with Gavin Henson, an international rugby player from Wales, in 2005. The relationship captured media attention, which gave them the moniker 'the Welsh Posh and Becks.'

The couple had two children, but decided to end their relationship in 2010, weeks after confirming their engagement.

Her legal battle against the hackers also happened during that time, then it was eventually settled in 2012.

The singer, dubbed as the Voice of an Angel during her peak, mentioned that reading what people wrote about her at the time 'felt like a knife to the skin.'

'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,' she described.

'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.'

She also claimed that she experienced public shaming.

'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.'

Her experiences taught her to be tough, and her strength gave her a feeling of protection. '​​ If I had let that shame in or internalised it, my life could have gone in a very different way.'

The Celebrity Traitors

Church joined other celebrities in the BBC's new reality competition, 'The Celebrity Traitors'.

She will appear alongside other celebrities, including the retired Olympic diver, Tom Daley, Thursday Murder Club member Celia Imrie, and actor Sir Stephen Fry.

In the series, hosted by Claudia Winkleman, the contestants must try to pinpoint who among themselves is the traitor. They must also win in a series of challenges to earn funds that they'll contribute to the final prize money.

By the end of the series, the remaining faithfuls (not the traitor) must figure out who the traitor is to win the cash prize. If they could not find the traitor at the final moment, the traitor would win all the pot money.

The prize can reach up to £100,000 (approximately $135,258), which they can donate to their chosen charity.

The Celebrity Traitors will premiere on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Thursday, 8 October. Viewers can expect to see two episodes per week every Wednesday and Thursday.

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