Hostage free after 17 hours
A WOMAN held hostage for 17 hours has been freed after negotiators talked a man into giving himself up.
Police sealed off a road and spent the night talking to the man after the incident began on Friday evening in Birmingham.
A man was arrested on suspicion of false imprisonment after the siege ended yesterday morning.
POP queen Ellie Goulding sang about being on the Outside... and today says she still feels like the odd one out.
At 33, Ellie has fame, fortune and is coming up to the first anniversary of a blissful marriage.
Fans love her. She loves them. She loves women too – with a crush on Spice Girl Geri Horner, an obsession with former glamour model Katie Price and an invaluable friendship with Gavin & Stacey actress Julia Davis.
But Ellie admits the only fellow female singer she has really bonded with is mum-to-be Katy Perry, 35, who attended her wedding to art dealer Caspar Jopling, 28, last year.
Ellie tells the Sunday Mirror: “I’ve never felt like I fit in with any female artists, which is really strange because I love women so much.
CONNECTION
“I basically write my music for women and I want women to feel empowered. I want them to feel independent, I don’t want them to feel like they have to rely on a man for happiness.
“So with all that, I do find it strange that I don’t have that connection with other female artists. I wish I did. I follow female artists on social media and I try to be involved but I always feel like the odd one out. I don’t know why.
“If I really need to talk to a female artist who has been through everything, I’m lucky enough to be able to ask Katy for advice. And she is incredible at advice.
“She is funny, she has a great sense of humour. She will tell you how it is.
“She is one person I have always been able to talk to about stuff.”
Ellie would like to have a connection with musical heroes including Kate Bush, but admits: “I don’t think that’s ever going to happen.”
She has battled anxiety over the years and explains how actress Julia – Dawn Sutcliffe in TV’s Gavin & Stacey – became an unlikely ally.
She says: “I went against all my anxiety barriers and reached out to Julia Davis. She was in my favourite comedy Nighty Night years back. She is in a clique with Steve Coogan and Ruth Jones and James Corden.
“I reached out and said, ‘You don’t know me but I’d love to pick your brain. I think you’re amazing’.
I fall in love with people and have crushes and obsessions all the time ELLIE GOULDING SINGER ON FELLOW FEMALE STARS
She responded, and we met up. I was so nervous but so glad I did it. I was talking about the next album... it was amazing. I think I need to be more brave and reach out to more women.
“It’s always odd when you meet a woman in later life and you go, ‘Do you want to be best friends?’
“But I have crushes all the time and fall in love with people.”
One of her favourites is Ginger Spice Geri, 47. Ellie says: “Me and my friend have an obsession with Geri. We are always on her Insta.”
And she also has a soft spot for another of Britain’s most famous women, Katie Price, 42.
“I have a weird obsession with Katie,” confesses Ellie. “When her
TV show was on I was always strangely fascinated with her.
“You will be like, ‘What the hell, this is not who I expected Ellie Goulding to talk about’, but I feel like everyone has used her for their own entertainment purposes, then people are just willing to drop her.”
On Ellie’s new album Brightest Blue, she has a track called Woman, as well as Ode To Myself – and it all feels very much like a celebration of womanhood.
In her 20s, Ellie found it hard to make close friends. She says: “I have been in that clique and as nice as it was, it didn’t ever feel real enough. That