23 December 2023 , 18:10
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Warning: this article contains content that may be distressing to some readers
As Katherine Jenkins takes to the stage for a very special Christmas concert, we take a look at her life away from the limelight, including a painful past break-up and an attack that left her looking over her shoulder with fear many years later.
Best known for her soaring mezzo-soprano voice, Katherine, 43, will this evening be bringing festive cheer to fans across the UK, through a televised concert entitled Christmas with Katherine Jenkins. The Glamorgan-born classical singer is now happily married to American painter Andrew Levitas, with whom she shares Aaliyah, born September 2015, and Xander, born 2018.
But before settling down, Katherine candidly opened up about her personal life and struggles, including the painful heartaches she's endured. She was previously engaged to TV presenter Gethin Jones, who called things off just 10 months after his romantic proposal in Mexico, leaving her utterly bereft.
Katherine and Gethin were together for five years (WireImage)
The heartbroken singer was left seeking answers following the break-up (Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)Heartbreak
Katherine was left so devastated following her 2011 split from Cardiff-born Gethin, that she struggled to summon the energy to get up onstage. Looking back on this time in the BBC documentary Being Katherine Jenkins, the singer revealed she didn't understand why Gethin had decided to end things, and felt people had gotten the wrong impression about what had happened.
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Katherine recalled: "At the end of 2011 when Gethin and I broke up, the reality of it was that about two weeks later I had to go on a UK tour where every night I'm singing songs of heartbreak and every day just trying to find the energy to cope let alone going on stage and understand his reason for doing it. Meanwhile, everybody else is under the impression it was my decision, my ambition, I wanted to take over the world."
The couple had been together for five years, having first locked eyes on the set of Strictly Come Dancing, and their headline-making break-up shocked fans, who'd long believed them to be a perfect match. Gethin, now 45, recently shed some light on his mindset during this very difficult period during a conversation with the Mirror's Tom Bryant's Outdoors in Mind podcast. Opening up in support of the Hats On For Mind campaign, Gethin explained that he'd been dealing with a 'bad bout of depression' at the time of his engagement, all while knowing full well that he should be on cloud nine.
Gethin shared: "I was engaged and then breaking up, afterwards, or even during that period, it was just awful. I remember doing BBC Radio 5Live and going into the toilet at 5.30am going, 'All right. Come on. Just focus for the next three hours, and then you can go back to being sad again'. I definitely had a bad bout of depression during that time."
Although Gethin, who has never publicly discussed the split, didn't go into detail about what exactly happened toward the end of his time with Katherine, he made it clear that their relationship crumbled against a backdrop of mental health issues, for which he's since undergone therapy. Thinking back to the intense public attention at that time, he added: "It was horrible... a lot of what I read about myself wasn't right."
Katherine has previously opened up about surviving a horrific attack (Getty Images)Horrifying attack
During an interview with Piers Morgan back in 2009, Katherine opened up about a violent attacker who attempted to rape her after she got separated from friends on a night out. Katherine, who says she was still a student at the time of the attack, recalled how the man punched her and shoved her against a wall during her horrific ordeal.
Katherine, who tried to fight back against her attacker, said: "I was walking across the bridge, near Paddington, and as I crossed this sort of gangway which went down to the station I felt suddenly someone too close to me and he, within seconds, was in front of me trying to drag me down this gangway and the police believe that he was trying to rape me."
She continued: "I wanted to kill him, I was so angry about it. I remember him grunting at me and the weirdest thing about it was that he looked so normal, he looked like he had just come out of the pub and had a normal office job, you know like a guy in his 30s ... and so he started dragging me and I remember my purse was there, so I knew he wasn't just trying to mug me 'cause he could have just snatched my purse."
Katherine managed to escape his clutches briefly, and ran in 'massive heels, across the road', managing to get to the other side where there was a 'big wooden wall'. She initially thought she'd gotten away, but then her assailant punched her and shoved her against the wall. She remembered: "I just thought 'Right, he is actually going to try and rape me' so if I can get in a ball on the floor... then he won't be able to do it.
"So I did that and he kicked me a few times and tried to get me to open up, and that didn't work... and then eventually he just looked at me and I just said 'What do you want?' And he said 'Well, just give me your purse then', so I gave him my purse, which didn't have much money in it because I was a student, and he ran to the end of the road and then stopped and looked back at me and laughed."
As there was no CCTV, the dangerous man was never caught, but Katherine added that she will 'never forget his face'. She went on to express terror that her attacker 'is still out there', telling Piers: "I was pretty terrified and I think I still will look over my shoulder even now."
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If you're struggling and need to talk, the Samaritans operate a free helpline open 24/7 on 116 123. Alternatively, you can email [email protected] or visit their site to find your local branch
If you've been the victim of sexual assault, you can access help and resources via www.rapecrisis.org.uk or calling the national telephone helpline on 0808 802 9999