KATIE HIND: I watched aghast as Charlotte Church's freeloading posse fleeced ... trends now
As she studied an itemised drinks bill at one of London’s most exclusive nightclubs, Charlotte Church was not happy.
The receipt, the length one would expect from a family’s weekly supermarket shop, was mostly made up of drinks that her boyfriend Kyle Johnson’s friends had racked up, swigging vodka cocktails, which even back then – 20 years ago – cost at least £15 a pop.
As she went through it, marking off with a biro pen what wasn’t hers, the Welsh singer angrily declared: ‘I’m going to make sure they pay.’
Only they didn’t.
Some minutes later I watched, aghast, as Charlotte summoned the waiter in the VIP area of Cirque nightclub in London’s Leicester Square and, her face like thunder, paid the lot on her credit card.
Charlotte singing in the Voices Of A Nation concert in Cardiff at the age of 14 in 1999
‘They just expect me to pay,’ Charlotte, then aged just 18, complained. The group, she told me, had travelled from Cardiff to London with Johnson, a trainee hotel manager and Charlotte’s second proper boyfriend, intent on a big night out – at her expense. Clearly, it wasn’t the first time it had happened.
That was in 2004, seven years after she catapulted to fame in 1997, aged 11, thanks to her ethereal, soprano voice, which was discovered when she sang Pie Jesu over the phone to ITV’s This Morning programme. At the height of her fame, she was said to be worth £25million.
Fast-forward 20 years, and last week Charlotte sensationally declared that most of the money has gone. ‘I’m not a millionaire any more,’ she said.
Now 38, a mother of three, and married to music producer Jonathan Powell, she made the shock revelation in an interview, saying: ‘I haven’t got a lot of money. I’ve got enough to be comfortable if I was reasonable for the rest of my life, but I’m not reasonable, so I will have to find a way to sustain my lifestyle.’
Her admission comes a year after it was revealed she’d sold her £1.5million home in the Vale of Glamorgan, to downsize to a semi-detached house nearby.
Last year, she launched her latest venture, a retreat called The Dreaming, just outside the remote market town of Rhayader, Powys. There, paying guests are offered the opportunity to connect with nature and undergo a ‘digital detox and cleanse’. Although it’s early days, the business has yet to make a profit, with net liabilities of £551,000. So where did all the money go?
While the ‘hangers-on’ that flocked around her throughout her wild teenage years definitely played a part, Charlotte’s fortune was also chipped away by management disputes, business ventures, broken relationships and the profligacy of her own family.
She certainly made no secret of how she was pressured by her father to keep working and add to her fortune while she could. She said: ‘When I made money, I did say to my dad when I was 14: “I’m not sure about this showbiz stuff. I’m not really having a good time” and he was like, “Just stick at it as we don’t get these opportunities.”
While Charlotte didn’t ever move to the capital, she would often travel there for big nights out
‘I did get to a stage in my teenage years, about 16 or 17, when I was like, “I don’t know if I can do this s*** any more.”’
It all appears to be quite the sorry scenario for Charlotte, who was born in the Cardiff enclave of Llandaff to mother Maria and father Stephen Reed. Her parents split up when she was two, and Maria went on to marry James Church, who adopted Charlotte and she took his surname. After her sensational appearance on This Morning, she was immediately signed up by savvy showbusiness agent Jonathan Shalit.
He secured her a lucrative music deal at Sony and her debut album Voice Of An Angel, released in November 1998, sold millions across the world. She became one of the most talked-about child stars on the planet.
She added to her fortune with lucrative private gigs for the rich and famous: she performed for Pope John Paul II, the late Queen and former US President Bill Clinton. She went on to launch a pop career and also hosted a chat show on Channel 4, The Charlotte Church Show.
While she was still not old enough to hold a driving licence, let alone understand the wranglings of high finance, all of Charlotte’s fortune and career were still very much left to her parents and her management company.
In 2000, however, there was a very bitter and expensive court battle with former manager Shalit, after he was sensationally sacked by Charlotte’s mother. He’d been claiming £4million of the teenager’s earnings, and the parties were heading for the High Court before settling with a compensation package thought to be worth £2million.
She couldn’t access her fortune until she was 18, but when she finally did the singer did not hold back and stated she would buy a £1million ruby-encrusted bra to mark the occasion. While it isn’t known whether she made the purchase or not, she certainly lived the high life, with those closest to her joining her for the ride.
One associate who worked with Charlotte at the time said: ‘The problem Charlotte had was that she wanted to spend time with her
