Meet Songs of Praise’s new host: Katherine the former choirgirl who turned to cocaine
IT is the most traditional of religious programmes. So you might expect Songs of Praise to pick only the most traditional of presenters.
From next Sunday, however, viewers will see it hosted by a singer who has previously raised eyebrows after she admitted taking drugs.
Katherine Jenkins, a former choirgirl who turned to cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis as a student, will join hosts including Aled Jones and Pam Rhodes on the BBC programme.
In 2008, Miss Jenkins revealed she had experimented with class A drugs while studying at the Royal Academy of Music in the late 1990s, describing it as ‘the biggest regret of my life’. She said: ‘There was nothing like that around where I grew up. I never saw a drug or even knew what they looked like. But when I started going out in London, I slowly became aware that when I went to parties, or went clubbing, a lot of people were taking drugs.
‘I tried one line of cocaine that first time. I took cocaine a handful of times more after that, maybe five or six. I’d take up to three lines a night.’
Miss Jenkins, 37, who has a oneyear-old daughter with her American painter husband Andrew Levitas, also admitted taking ecstasy, as well as eating cakes with cannabis in them. The revelations were a far cry from her innocent upbringing in Neath, Wales, where she won Welsh Choir Girl of the Year.
At 17, she won a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy and moved to London where she encountered drugs. But after landing a £1million Universal Records contract aged 23, she decided to change her lifestyle.
Reflecting on her drugs controversy in 2011, Miss Jenkins spoke of her relief that people no longer thought she ‘led a nun’s life’.
Last night, Tory MP Andrew Bridgen, a member of the Christians in Parliament group, said Miss Jenkins’ past should not be used against her: ‘Christianity is a religion of forgiveness and everybody should be welcomed.’