She was one of The X Factor’s most promising stars, tipped as the favourite to win after judge Louis Walsh predicted she would have a number one hit when her audition alone earned her a standing ovation. The first contestant to write and perform her own songs, Lucy Spraggan became an internet sensation, loved by the show’s legion of fans.
However, just three weeks into the series, the talented 20-year-old artist suddenly dropped out due, it was announced, to being 'unwell'. Only now, 11 years later, has Lucy publicly revealed the truth about what really forced her to quit - that a traumatic ordeal turned her life upside down.
Lucy Spraggan on The X Factor ordeal
In this interview with HELLO! she also tells how she is firmly back on track. And as she releases her new album, Balance, on Simon Cowell’s Syco label this week, she praises the music mogul’s friendship and support for helping her both personally and on a professional level towards achieving her dream. "I never met Simon when I was on X Factor because he was doing America’s Got Talent at the time, but I got to know him recently when I let him know I was writing my book," explains Lucy, 32, who has just published her best-selling memoir, Process: Finding My Way Through, the extraordinary story of her roller-coaster ride in the music industry.
"Simon is a really good person and as well as working together, we also share a really nice personal relationship. I was at his house a couple of times last week, with Lauren and Eric [Simon’s girlfriend and son]. He has a very good ear, and I send him songs and he gives me feedback. I know he’s a big music mogul but I didn't anticipate he’d be as good as he is."
Amid an outpouring of public support for Lucy, Simon said: "Lucy is one of the most authentic, talented, and brave people I have ever met. Since we connected, I have had the honour to work with Lucy and I have always supported her wish to tell her story, as well as her efforts to bring about positive change." The story Simon is alluding to is bravely revealed in Lucy’s memoir.
After a 25th birthday party for her fellow X Factor contestant Rylan Clark, she was attacked in her hotel room by a porter who used a staff key to enter. He was subsequently found guilty of rape and received a 10-year prison sentence, before being deported. Lucy turned to alcohol to cope with her ordeal, but following therapy she gave it up four years ago.
"I woke up one day and I just said, I'm not going to drink anymore," she says. "Being sober is one of the biggest achievements of my life and it has changed absolutely everything. I have more focus and clarity and my mental health is unbelievably better. All the things that I thought I needed to drink to do, like get up and dance at a wedding or speak in front of a room full of people, I can do without having to cover part of me up with alcohol and that’s really empowering."
She has also found love, with teaching assistant Evangeline, 26. "We've been going out nearly a year, we live together and it’s going great," she says. "If you'd have asked me about marriage and kids before I’d have said, absolutely not, but with her I definitely want to have kids and get married." Meanwhile her friendship with Rylan, now a TV presenter, is an important part of her life, too. Rylan is just a dream boat," she says. "He's such a good guy. It’sbeen an absolute pleasure to be friends with him and he’s the funniest person I’ve ever met."
Her new album - which has an earthy, Celtic sound and features Irish Uilleann pipes - reflects on events throughout Lucy’s life, with one song dedicated to her friend, the late Caroline Flack, and another about body image. “I don't think I've ever met anybody who doesn’t feel some negativity towards their own body,” says Lucy, who had breast enlargement surgery in 2020 after losing three stones. “There's a lot of pressure to look a certain way, but I try really hard now to feel a certain way instead.”
Lucy, who signed with Columbia Records after leaving The X Factor and has since had six top-40 albums and achieved 150 million streams on Spotify, adds: "I've written an album every two years since I was 18. I don't really put much planning into my songs; they just sort of happen and pop into my head." She has also been able to reflect on how, despite her traumatic experience, she is ultimately in a good place. "It wasn’t until I was writing the book that I realised how much I'd lost and how much had been taken away from me, not just with the assault, but with the opportunities too," she says. "But I have a wonderful life now. And all the things that I love about my life now I wouldn't have if things had been any different. I did get stuck in a rut for many years, feeling really sad and angry, and rightfully so.
"And then, when I got sober, I just decided I was going to turn everything around. And I look back and think, 'Wow, well done.'"
Lucy Spraggan's new album, Balance, is out Friday 11 August.
Photography: LUCY SPRAGGAN 0903 - JAMES NORTH
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