As Charlotte Church takes part in the first ever celebrity version of the hit BBC show The Traitors, we take a look at the singer/songwriter’s new life after blowing her fortune, her downsized home and teaching witchcraft in the woods
She first shot to fame in 1997 at the tender age of 11 for having the ‘voice of an angel’ after singing a version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Pie Jesu over the phone on This Morning.
Charlotte Church then went on to have an album of the same name and a hugely successful career in classical singing before crossing over into pop. The vocal talent also enjoyed a stint working in TV presenting before taking a step back from the spotlight to focus on her children when she became a mother.
These days she spends her days immersed in nature at her spiritual retreat where she relishes her role as a sound healer and leads a witchcraft course. She still dips her toe into the world of showbiz though and makes occasional appearances.
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Even though she admits she doesn’t watch much telly these days, Charlotte Church confessed The Traitors is one that does grab her attention. Good job really as she’s starring in the latest series of the BBC reality show – its first celebrity version.
Despite signing up to The Traitors, public appearances from the 39-year-old are relatively rare these days. Having found fame almost 30 years ago at such a tender age, it was probably inevitable she would tire of life in the spotlight earlier than most stars.
She amassed a huge fortune of £25million by the time she was 17 and had sold more than 10million records worldwide. However the singing sensation blew a large amount of her fortune, and by 2010 was said to be down to £11million. In 2014, she spoke to Stylist magazine about her cash flow and lavish spending habits. “I haven’t got a lot of money. I’ve got enough to be comfortable if I was reasonable for the rest of my life, but I’m not reasonable,” she confessed. “So I will have to find a way to sustain my lifestyle.”
These days Charlotte admits she’s no longer a millionaire but has very different life goals. In March this year when she was discussing her Welsh based retreat she said she knew she wanted to buy it as soon as she laid eyes on it. “I also didn’t want to have to make a living from showbusiness any longer,” she explained. “I wanted to make art and music, but not be reliant on celebrity; to live more in line with my values.”
She and second husband Jonathan Powell bought Rhydoldog, the former idyllic home of designer Laura Ashley, back in 2021 and opened it as wellness centre, The Dreaming, in 2023. Set on 47 acres of ancient woodland, Charlotte guides guests through immersive experiences such as breathwork, forest bathing, creative expression, and more.
Explaining her role at the retreat, she said: “I’m a sound healer now, so I’m doing stuff at The Dreaming, which is really about pulling out the strands of how sound can be used for healing, how voice can be used for healing. I wanna sort of try and meld this idea of music and healing, and voice and healing, with that joy and ecstasy.” She has even appeared on ITV’s This Morning to promote the practice and ‘heal’ hosts Dermott O’Leary and Alison Hammond – although the latter couldn’t control her giggles during the session.
The Classical Brit Award winner is also a high priestess on a five day Witch experience at the centre which is “designed to activate the witch within”, according to the website. “This retreat is for seekers ready to embrace their inner Witch, heal the witch wound, deepen their connection to magic, and immerse themselves in ritual & sacred practice,” the course description continues.
Despite one of these retreats setting a couple back up to £3,000, the centre is reported to be struggling to make a profit. Last year Charlotte was said to have been forced to sell her home and downsize to a semi-detached house.
She and her family lived in a huge mansion, The Spinney, in Dinas Powys, Wales. She is rumoured to have paid £1.3million for it in 2010 and made almost a million when it sold for £2million. Charlotte had previously told Closer about the school she ran from the “beautiful” property. “We had a school there for a bit and a studio,” she said. “When it is used by the community, it makes sense, but when it is not used, it doesn’t.”
More recently she spoke about her life at home with her family. She has two children, Ruby 18 and Dexter 16, with ex fiance and rugby star Gavin Henson. She and musician husband Jonathan, who she married in 2017, also share five year old daughter Frida Simone.
Although it sometimes makes for a hectic environment, she told House Beautiful her home is where she goes to escape. “Sometimes stressful and incredibly busy,” she said, explaining the atmosphere in the house. “I’ve got three kids, two dogs and a husband – and a place of refuge. My house is full of books, music, instruments, art and conversations in the kitchen.”
Revealing that the first thing she does when she gets home is “clean” thanks to the mess her family makes, she said she was at her happiest when they were all, “outside together gardening”. Describing the garden as her favourite room in her house where she often just sits to watch the weather, she continued: “I’m green-fingered, but growing up, I had no concept of nature. It was just in the background. Through having kids and growing a human being inside my body, nature is the centre of my life.”
Her perfect Sunday these days would be “out and about” in a forest, at a riverside or the beach. She also loves spending time at The Dreaming where she can rest and reflect. It’s where the family holds big get-togethers and dinner parties too. “We always do it at The Dreaming,” she said. “My husband does all the cooking and it’s always sharing food, so people can choose the amounts they want.”
The retreat offers hearty, vegetarian home cooked meals for guests and Charlotte has also had something of an epiphany when it comes to her diet in recent years. Admitting she used to be a junk food fanatic, she revealed she now only eats whole foods.
“I’ve just read a book, Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken, which has completely changed my eating habits, which will therefore change my life,” she said in an interview with the Mirror in 2023. “It explains how we’re all eating all these chemicals, which disrupt the appetite pathways.
“The correlation with obesity is frightening – our bodies don’t even know what’s hungry and what’s not. My relationship with food was always a bit of a rebellion, I think in part because I was scrutinised so much as a young person and throughout my life. My weight was always part of that scrutiny, so I really kicked against it. I had a pretty well-balanced diet, but I totally ate junk food as well, had loads of sweets – I was a proper sugar fiend. I ate whatever I wanted, all of the time.”
Revealing that she found the shift in eating habits easy, she added: “But something in this book has clicked and it completely changed my diet overnight, cutting out anything that’s not ‘real’ food. It hasn’t even been a struggle, which I never in a million years thought would happen. I’m pleasantly surprised by the ease of this transition.”
Celebrity Traitors launched on Wednesday 8 October on BBC1 at 9pm. Charlotte Church, Kate Garraway, Paloma Faith and Tom Daley are among the 19 stars being welcomed to the Scottish Highlands by host Claudia Winkleman.
