Singer opens up on family life in show
CHARLOTTE CHURCH and her mother Maria have revealed that they didn’t speak for more than a year when the singer was a teenager.
The pair, along with Charlotte’s father James, escaped to a remote Devon lodge as part of an emotional hour-long documentary, due to air on Channel 4 on Thursday, October 17.
During the programme, the performer addresses the issues she and Maria have gone through and it’s also revealed that James is suffering from a terminal illness.
The in-depth and personal conversations show the family at their most vulnerable and reveal that the singer, who found global fame at the age 11 when she called This Morning and sang over the phone, and her mother fell out when the singer was 16 and didn’t speak for a year and a half.
“When you are living in each other’s pockets... and you’re 14 and you want to be as far away from your parents as you can get, the last thing you want is to go to the MTV Awards with your mother.”
Clearing the air with her mother about fall outs that happened almost 20 years ago, Charlotte said: “Even to this day my mother still talks about it and I think she wants me to apologise, but she needs to too.”
She tells Maria: “I’m taking some responsibility. I dealt with it awfully and I was really callous. But on the other side of that, I was in pain as well, I hated not speaking to all of you. What I do want to acknowledge is that you can’t put it all on me.”
An emotional Maria tells her daughter: “It went from looking after my little girl and helping with her career to everyone linked with you in the industry cutting us dead. I had nothing. Especially as I had lost my daughter.”
Maria openly talks about her issues with mental health and the impact working with Charlotte and the press attention at the time.
James said: “When Charlotte was a child, the press can’t knock a child so they went after the next best thing and that was Maria, she was the villain.”
Interspersed with clips of Charlotte as a young singer and documentary shows the now a mother-of-two and her parents in a natural and relaxed mood, and enjoying each other’s company.
Charlotte and James’ relationship features heavily in the show as the 55-yearold, a constant presence in the performer’s life since she was a baby, has been diagnosed with AL amyloidosis – and the dad and daughter face up to what the future may hold.
Charlotte said: “Another, more personal reason why we wanted to do this trip now. I really worry about my dad.
“I’m really scared about this situation. I’m really scared of him not being here. There’s loads of stuff I want to say. Whether I’ve got the courage to say it or not is another thing
“It’s absolutely terrifying the idea of not having him around. I rely on him for so much, he’s my buddy, my absolute best friend and has been for years.”
James, who adopted Charlotte after he and Maria married, added: “She sees me as her dad and always has. There’s a strong bond there.”
The pair share some honest and emotional moments on their trip as James reveals that Charlotte is the closest person he can share his emotions with.
James said: “Time is not on my side. The disease I have is very rare, only one in eight million people have it. The worst scenario is I could only have six months, so I’m in a horrible position.
“I think about it all the time, what I can do to get my family into a place where I’m comfortable to leave them.”
■ You can watch all of Charlotte Church: My Family and Me when it airs on Channel 4, 9pm, on October 17.