Early life
Charlotte Maria Church was born 21 February 1986 in Llandaff, Wales. The daughter of Stephen Reed, a compute engineer and Maria, a classical guitarist and housing officer, Charlotte grew up in a working-class suburb of Cardiff. Her parents split when she was two, and Charlotte adopted the surname of her step-father James Church when he married her mother and adopted her when she was five years old.
Singing success
Before their daughter turned ten, her parents had recognized she had the makings of a professional singer. Aged just 11, she appeared via telephone on This Morning in 1997, and later performed on ITV's Big, Big Talent Show on screen. After these successful early appearances, the young star began receiving many more invites to perform throughout the late 90s and early 00s.
She became a vocal scholar at Howell's School Llandaff in 1998, where she was able to balance her performance schedule with school work thanks to help from a tutor. Her first album, Voice of an Angel, was released in 1998 and made it to No. 1 on the British classical charts. It was soon followed by a second self-titled record in 1999. Charlotte left school in 2002 at the age of 16 in order to pursue her singing career fulltime.
Other stardom
Alongside her continuing success as a singer, Charlotte made several appearances on TV and in films over the years. Her first role came in the CBS series Touched by an Angel, and this was followed by an appearance in the Christmas special of Heartbeat in 1999. She later found success as herself hosting TV shows, and even got to create a pilot for her own The Charlotte Church Show in 2006 (although sadly it never aired). In 2014, she starred in the BBC's adaptation of Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood to celebrate the late poet's 100th birthday.
Personal life
Charlotte has been in several high profile relationships over the years, first to the musician Steve Johnson. She later dated Gavin Henson from 2005 to 2010, and the couple share two children, a daughter called Ruby who was born in 2007 and a son Dexter who was born in 2009.
Charlotte met musician Jonathan Powell in 2010, and the couple married in private in 2017. They welcomed a daughter, Frida, in August 2020. The family live in a mansion named Rhydoldog House in the Elan Valley.
