Charlotte Church says some fans believed she was an angel with ‘divine power’

Welsh singer admits she struggled to cope with her ‘angelic image’ when she rose to fame in the early Nineties

Charlotte Church has revealed that some fans were convinced she was an “actual angel” after she released her debut album.

Appearing on Kate Garraway’s Life Stories on ITV, the Welsh singer discussed how she rose to fame aged 11 in 1997, before finding success as a pop star. Her debut album, Voice of an Angel, was released in 1998.

“People often would say that I was an actual angel,” she said. “And you know, this is particularly in religious America and stuff where people really thought that I had some sort of, you know, divine power.”

She recalled meeting a man backstage at a concert in New York – during the early stages of her career – who claimed that her music had cured his brain cancer.

“[He] was absolutely convinced I’d cured his brain cancer through listening to my music,” Church said. “It’s like, you know, I doubt it happened. But he was absolutely convinced. So I was like, ‘Fair enough babes’.”

“I remember having fans at signings and stuff who would be shaking from head to toe to meet me, and that was weird,” she added.

Having found fame as a child with a pure and angelic image, Church said she struggled to live up to the public perception of her as she grew older, feeling “stifled” as she hit puberty.

Singer Charlotte Church performing live (Getty Images)

“I felt I had to be this other eternally young, innocent, you know, little girl and that’s not where literally biological life was taking me,” she said.

While there were various tabloid reports at the time of Church undergoing a “rebellion” in her teenage years, the 35-year-old said the only thing she rebelled against was “celebrity”.

“You’ve got to remember and put me in my context, which is like an impressionable young girl and who’s trying to fit in,” she said. “So no, there was definitely no conscious rebellion. The only thing I rebelled against was celebrity. My rebellion was: I will be normal.”

In a recent interview with The Independent, Church compared fame to being in “a psychological grinder”.

Kate Garraway’s Life Stories with Church is available to watch on ITV Hub.

Additional reporting by Press Association