63 h. ago
‘I was sexualised, patronised and ridiculed’: how Charlotte Church survived the tabloids to become an earth mother
Charlotte Church has lived her life in the full glare of publicity, rising from child star to tabloid target. Now, happier and more free than ever, she’s found her feet – and her voice – at her healing retreat in the Welsh valleysWhen Charlotte Church arrives, she starts to cry. “I break down,” she says, “every time I reach here. It’s the first thing I do when I set foot on this soil.” It’s a two-hour drive from her home in Barry to The Dreaming, the retreat centre she opened in 2023, a pilgrimage across Bannau Brycheiniog and into the myth-steeped hills of the Elan Valley in Powys, central Wales. “Two to three weeks,” she’s explaining, icy ground crunching underfoot, “is the longest I can stay away before I start clucking. As I get closer, I feel myself relaxing, a calm coming over me, my nervous system resetting.” That bodily response, she’s sure, is physiological. Tears stream. “This land holds me like nothing else. It feels like coming home; I’m enveloped here.”It’s early Januar...
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