‘I was totally exploited like I was a commodity’
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Charlotte Church has opened up about her early experience in the music industry – revealing she was ‘exploited like a commodity’, with almost half of her earnings taken from her.
The Welsh singer-songwriter is currently back on our screens as one of the contestants in The Celebrity Traitors, starring alongside the likes of Jonathan Ross and Alan Carr. However, it wasn’t her role in the hit TV show that took centre stage when she recently appeared on the How To Fail With Elizabeth Day podcast – with Charlotte dropping some shocking revelations about her early career.
When asked by Elizabeth about her early experiences in the music industry, Charlotte replied, ‘They were terrible. There’s no two ways about it. I was not looked after. I was not nurtured. I was just totally exploited like I was a commodity.’
Charlotte first rose to fame in 1997 at the age of just 11, after she sang ‘Pie Jesu’ over the phone of British TV show This Morning. The moment led to her being dubbed a child prodigy, releasing her debut album Voice of an Angel in 1998. While many would think global recognition equals big financial wins, exploitative record deals left the child star signing over almost half of her earnings.
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She revealed, ‘I had 40% of my earnings taken from me by my manager at the time. So even stuff like that, like the deals that I got into and that my parents signed on my behalf, but they were also totally green and naïve. We got massively taken advantage of, without a shadow of a doubt.’
The ‘Crazy Chick’ singer’s success only grew. But as has been the case for young women since time immemorial, the star found herself being sexualised by those around her rather than praised for her talents.
One particularly shocking moment came from former Radio 1 radio host Chris Moyles in 2002. While presenting the drive-time show, Chris offered to take then-teenager Charlotte’s virginity, saying he wanted to ‘lead her through the forest of sexuality now she had reached 16’.
Fast forward almost two decades, and the casual sexualisation of women is a disappointing reality that still exists. When Charlotte made her Traitors debut earlier this month, search for the Welsh singer boomed – as did breakout terms on ‘breasts.’
When asked by Elizabeth how ‘demeaning and sexualised’ her experiences were as a teenager, Charlotte said, ‘It was really extreme to be constantly made a figure of fun, of fodder, not taken at all seriously in any way, in my art, in my thoughts, in what I had to say. But then also being betrayed on a very personal level by my first boyfriends, and the first men that I had sex with and they’re all sharing stories and making a lot of money, and that being a deeply wounding, shameful thing.’
At 21 years old, Charlotte fell pregnant with rugby player Gavin Henson – who she split from in May 2010, after five years together. Before even having the chance to announce the happy news to family and friends, the singer found her pregnancy news hit headlines.
Speaking in an interview with The Observer, Charlotte previously said, ‘[My character] was taken from me, and made into something salacious, or something to be ridiculed.’
Now speaking to Elizabeth, Charlotte revealed she’s ‘made peace’ with her prior struggles. Admitting that she was taken advantage of, the singer added, ‘I’ve made my peace with it now because I understand the wider context. I’m a deeply politicised person and so I’m not looking at myself from a victim mindset in terms of like, “Oh poor me, this thing happened to me.” I’ve worked through a lot of that stuff and I can understand the soil in which I was growing – and that soil was full of sh*t.’
Charlotte Roberts is a writer at Grazia UK, specialising in SEO. She spends her days covering everything celebrity, culture, and entertainment – from film review roundups to cast explainers.
