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Singer Charlotte Church told the Leveson enquiry (set up to explore the behaviour of the media in light of the recent phone hacking scandal) that Rupert Murdoch offered her positive media coverage in return for a free performance of ‘Pie Jesu’ at his wedding to Wendy Deng eleven years ago. News International disputed the claims, saying that Charlotte performed at Murdoch’s wedding as a surprise for the media mogul.
The Welsh born singer who shot to fame on This Morning and the Big Big Talent Show (1997) states that she was pressured into waiving the wedding fee by advisers who insisted on the value of Murdoch’s influence as opposed to the £100,000 she would alternatively receive. 13 year old Charlotte would have preferred to have taken the money and spent it on Tamagotchis.
Charlotte Church implied that in spite of her free concert, Murdoch’s papers still allowed her and her family to be a victim of predatory paparazzi and illegal phone hacking. Aged 15 one newspaper ran a countdown to the time she was sixteen and old enough to have sex. On another occasion there was a story published about Church’s cocaine and sex addiction. The article was in fact about her Father who was said to be having affairs and hooked on cocaine at the time.
Charlotte Church acknowledged that she had received good press at the outset of her career but said that she had become a victim of slander and blackmail which meant that she needed to be under protection whilst in America. It may be noted here that her comments regarding the aftermath of the September the 11th bombings have been outspoken, if not inappropriate and may have also contributed to her unpopularity in the USA.
News of Charlotte’s pregnancy reached the news even before her family knew. The singer believes her phone and voicemails may have been targeted by media hackers.
Church is one of the latest to come forward with complaints about the ethics of Murdoch’s media empire. Others include the parents of murdered schoolgirl Minnie Dowler who were led to believe she was alive after voicemails were cleared. Murdoch has allowed illegal behaviour to go on involving papers such as The News of The World which quite rightly closed its doors after a series of phone hacking incidents were revealed including the afore mentioned and also footballer Ryan Giggs who sought legal action against the paper for phone hacking and exposing an alleged affair with his brother’s wife.
It is a shocking tale of blackmail, secrecy and deceit involving journalists and police alike which has caused suffering to a lot of people. Church’s Mother is said to have attempted suicide on discovering stories about her husband’s alleged affair. The Parents of Minnie Dowler were led into false hope that their daughter might still be alive. How many more skeletons are there to come out of the closet following this enquiry?
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