KATIE HIND: I watched aghast as Charlotte Church's freeloading posse fleeced her in a nightclub when she was just 18. I'm not surprised she's 燃やすd through her £25m fortune
As she 熟考する／考慮するd an itemised drinks 法案 at one of London’s most 排除的 nightclubs, Charlotte Church was not happy.
The 領収書, the length one would 推定する／予想する from a family’s 週刊誌 supermarket shop, was mostly made up of drinks that her boyfriend Kyle Johnson’s friends had racked up, swigging vodka cocktails, which even 支援する then ? 20 years ago ? cost at least £15 a pop.
As she went through it, 場内取引員／株価 off with a biro pen what wasn’t hers, the Welsh singer 怒って 宣言するd: ‘I’m going to make sure they 支払う／賃金.’
Only they didn’t.
Some minutes later I watched, aghast, as Charlotte 召喚するd the waiter in the VIP area of Cirque nightclub in London’s Leicester Square and, her 直面する like 雷鳴, paid the lot on her credit card.
Charlotte singing in the 発言する／表明するs Of A Nation concert in Cardiff at the age of 14 in 1999
‘They just 推定する／予想する me to 支払う／賃金,’ Charlotte, then 老年の just 18, complained. The group, she told me, had travelled from Cardiff to London with Johnson, a 訓練生 hotel 経営者／支配人 and Charlotte’s second proper boyfriend, 意図 on a big night out ? at her expense. 明確に, it wasn’t the first time it had happened.
That was in 2004, seven years after she catapulted to fame in 1997, 老年の 11, thanks to her ethereal, soprano 発言する／表明する, which was discovered when she sang Pie Jesu over the phone to ITV’s This Morning programme. At the 高さ of her fame, she was said to be 価値（がある） £25million.
急速な／放蕩な-今後 20 years, and last week Charlotte sensationally 宣言するd 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 生産者 Jonathan Powell, she made the shock 発覚 in an interview, 説: ‘I 港／避難所’t got a lot of money. I’ve got enough to be comfortable if I was reasonable for the 残り／休憩（する） of my life, but I’m not reasonable, so I will have to find a way to 支える my lifestyle.’
Her admission comes a year after it was 明らかにする／漏らすd she’d sold her £1.5million home in the Vale of Glamorgan, to downsize to a 半分-detached house nearby.
Last year, she 開始する，打ち上げるd her 最新の 投機・賭ける, a 退却／保養地 called The Dreaming, just outside the remote market town of Rhayader, Powys. There, 支払う／賃金ing guests are 申し込む／申し出d the 適切な時期 to connect with nature and を受ける a ‘数字表示式の detox and 洗浄する’. Although it’s 早期に days, the 商売／仕事 has yet to make a 利益（をあげる）, with 逮捕する 義務／負債s 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 管理／経営 論争s, 商売／仕事 投機・賭けるs , broken 関係s and the profligacy of her own family.?
She certainly made no secret of how she was 圧力d by her father to keep working and 追加する 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 適切な時期s.”
While Charlotte didn’t ever move to the 資本／首都, she would often travel there for big nights out
‘I did get to a 行う／開催する／段階 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 やめる the sorry シナリオ for Charlotte, who was born in the Cardiff 飛び領土 of Llandaff to mother Maria and father Stephen Reed. Her parents 分裂（する） up when she was two, and Maria went on to marry James Church, who 可決する・採択するd Charlotte and she took his surname. After her sensational 外見 on This Morning, she was すぐに 調印するd up by savvy showbusiness スパイ／執行官 Jonathan Shalit.
He 安全な・保証するd her a lucrative m usic 取引，協定 at Sony and her debut album 発言する／表明する Of An Angel, 解放（する）d in November 1998, sold millions across the world. She became one of the most talked-about child 星／主役にするs on the 惑星.
She 追加するd to her fortune with lucrative 私的な gigs for the rich and famous: she 成し遂げるd for ローマ法王 John Paul II, the late Queen and former US 大統領 法案 Clinton. She went on to 開始する，打ち上げる a pop career and also hosted a 雑談（する） show on Channel 4, The Charlotte Church Show.
While she was still not old enough to 持つ／拘留する a 運動ing licence, let alone understand the wranglings of high 財政／金融, all of Charlotte’s fortune and career were still very much left to her parents and her 管理／経営 company.
In 2000, however, there was a very bitter and expensive 法廷，裁判所 戦う／戦い with former 経営者／支配人 Shalit, after he was sensationally 解雇（する）d by Charlotte’s mother. He’d been （人命などを）奪う，主張するing £4million of the 十代の少年少女’s 収入s, and the parties were 長，率いるing for the High 法廷，裁判所 before settling with a 補償（金） 一括 thought to be 価値（がある） £2million.
She couldn’t 接近 her fortune until she was 18, but when she finally did the singer did not 持つ／拘留する 支援する and 明言する／公表するd she would buy a £1million ruby-encrusted bra to 示す the occasion. While it isn’t known whether she made the 購入（する） 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 手配中の，お尋ね者 to spend time with her boyfriend and her friends who she grew up with but she had far more money than them.
‘So she would 扱う／治療する them, 支払う／賃金 for them to go to the nice places and do the nice things, whether it was a night out in London or a holiday abroad.
‘She was 肉親，親類d with it, but you have to look 支援する now and wonder if she was far, far too generous.’
It didn’t stop at nightclub 遠出s. In July 2004 Charlotte took a group of friends to Ibiza where they stayed at a £25,000-per-week 郊外住宅 and she 雇うd a 十分な-time driver and 護衛.
But it was the number of men throwing themselves at her that became her weak 位置／汚点／見つけ出す.
First was model and DJ Steven Johnson, said to be a ‘nice boy’, although Charlotte’s mother did not 認可する. 早期に in their romance, Charlotte splashed out £400,000 on a penthouse apartment on the picturesque Cardiff Bay so they could have some ‘alone time’.
When they 分裂（する） up after a year together, she moved on to ‘bad boy’ Kyle Johnson. The pair spent two years partying at some of London’s most expensive nightspots.
While Charlotte didn’t ever move to the 資本／首都, she would 定期的に travel there for big nights out, all 基金d by her. Another 所有物／資産／財産 購入（する） followed, this time a £500,000 Edwardian four-bedroom house の近くに to her mum’s.
When she 捨てるd Kyle after a 一連の 列／漕ぐ／騒動s, he sold his story to the tabloid newspaper News Of The World just days later, where he 明らかにする／漏らすd intimate 詳細（に述べる）s about their sex life.
The singer in 2004 with then boyfriend Kyle Johnson, who later sold his story of their sex life to the News Of The World
Friends say that Charlotte felt ‘used’ by him and a few days after his kiss-and-tell was published it was 報告（する）／憶測d that Charlotte 恐らく punched him after spotting him in a restaurant.
In 2009, he was 刑務所，拘置所d for 12 years after £10 million-価値（がある） of ヘロイン was 設立する in his home. Charlotte’s next big romance was with Welsh rugby heartthrob Gavin Henson, and they were soon dubbed the ‘Welsh Posh and Becks’. Their lifestyle 反映するd their 愛称. They bought an £800,000 ヨット, which they moored in Swansea Marina, and would 定期的に indulge in wild parties.
Until, that was, Charlotte became 妊娠している with their daughter Ruby, now 16. Son Dexter followed two years later, but the 関係 with Henson didn’t last, and they 分裂（する） up in 2010.
Church says the 分離, just six weeks after they had 発表するd their 約束／交戦, was 相互の.
‘We 分裂（する） for really normal 推論する／理由s,’ she said. ‘There was never any professional jealousy. We tried to make things work... but our house had been turning into an unhappy one.’
Charlotte outside the mansion in central むちの跡s which is now a wellness 退却／保養地
She bought Gavin a five-bedroom 所有物／資産／財産 so that he could live closer to their children.
By 2010, Charlotte’s wealth had dropped to £11million and she said in a 文書の: ‘I will have to work for the 残り／休憩（する） of my life, not because I want to but because I have to. The 税金 man is looking at my accounts wondering where I’m hiding all my money.’
一方／合間, Charlotte met musician Jonathan Powell and they began dating in late 2010. She bought their family home in Twyncyn, Dynas Powis, setting her 支援する another £1.3million. They married in 2017 and in 2020 she gave birth to their first child together, Frida.
One friend said: ‘Charlotte was by far the breadwinner in all of her 関係s, even with Gavin who played for むちの跡s. And that makes you 攻撃を受けやすい. She spent a lot of money on these men, it was sad to watch. While she wasn’t 負かす／撃墜する a 地雷, she did lose a lot of her childhood to her career. Those are years she won’t get 支援する. It seems like a dreadful shame.’
It wasn’t just the men in Charlotte’s life who were the 受益者s of her fortune ? her parents also appeared to live their daughter’s dream と一緒に her.
One friend of the 星／主役にする said: ‘Maria and James lived a good life off the 支援する of Charlotte’s hard work. That isn’t やむを得ず unusual but it might explain where some of the money went.’
For now, although living a more humble life, Charlotte seems content?? with a happy marriage, 十代の少年少女s, a toddler and her new 商売／仕事 投機・賭ける
It was Maria who …を伴ってd Charlotte to the This Morning studios 支援する in 1997 and she was said to have taken a ‘抱擁する 利益／興味’ in her daughter’s career. And there were 利益s from it, too.
In 2003, when Charlotte was 17, Maria and James opened a hotel in the centre of Cardiff, which they 指名するd ‘Church’.
A year later they bought a 株 in the nearby コマドリ Hood pub where Charlotte later met Powell.
‘Maria and James loved all the attention,’ says a friend of the 星／主役にする. ‘Charlotte would often pop into the pub and sing on the karaoke machine and it would become very public. Maria and James lived like celebrities.
‘They were A-listers in Cardiff ? everyone knew who they were. They would socialise a lot, visiting lots of nice 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業s and restaurants.’
In 2006, Maria raised eyebrows when she 投資するd hundreds of thousands of 続けざまに猛撃するs to open an 排除的 designer 着せる／賦与するs and shoe shop called Chiesa ? the Italian word for Church.
They chose one of Cardiff’s most sought-after areas, Pontcanna, as it was high-end and ‘fabulous’ as one former associate put it.
‘It was a real status symbol for Maria to have that shop, but it didn’t last. She would 飛行機で行く off abroad to buy 在庫／株 ? a lot of money must have been wasted.’
For now, although living a more humble life, Charlotte seems content ? with a happy marriage, 十代の少年少女s, a toddler and her new 商売／仕事 投機・賭ける.
One can only hope that the Welsh ‘wild child’, with the 発言する／表明する of an angel, has finally grown up, 解放する／自由な of the millions and the empty trappings of fame they can bring.
