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E-mailSusan Boyle talks about tough childhood, Irish mother’s death and her ‘Cinderella story’
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After her beloved Irish mother died, Susan Boyle’s home was quiet for weeks.
But eventually, the singer began to play her music again, decided to audition for “Britain’s Got Talent,” and the rest is history.
Boyle talked to Britain’s Daily Mail about her journey – from her tough childhood, to her close relationship with her mother, to her independence and her rise to fame.
The youngest of nine children, Susan was born to Irish immigrant parents in Blackburn, Scotland in a terraced house that she still calls home today.
“I was bullied quite a lot as a child,” Boyle told the Daily Mail.
“They used to call me Sambo, because I had black curly hair, and Simple Susie. At school, I felt very frustrated, very lonely – people didn't want to sit next to me in class. I was often bawling my eyes out and it does tend to chip away at your personality.”
But Susan felt safe at home, where she created an imaginary world while playing with her dolls.
“That was my wee family,” she said. “I had my own way of playing. They were my friends.”
But eventually, music took Susan’s toys’ place as her escape.
“When I got older, all that changed to music. Music was very much an escape, because I'd go to my bedroom and nobody could taunt me,” she said.
Boyle’s dream was always to sing professionally, and she would perform at local venues as often as possible.
Susan, a devout Catholic, was a volunteer at her church, Our Lady of Lourdes, and she’d entertain the elderly and disabled with her amazing singing ability.
Mostly she kept to herself, calling her parents her friends, but the “Scottish spinster,” as they’ve dubbed her in Britain, did have a brief romance.
“I had a boyfriend, John, who worked in an office. He asked me to marry him after seven weeks, although we'd only ever had a peck on the cheek, but he eventually got cold feet,” Susan revealed.
“It made me sad, in a way. It makes you feel unattractive; you feel that life is passing you by. But I thought, ‘Maybe there's something for me later.’ I was always optimistic.”
Tragedy struck the Boyle family when Irish father Patrick died in 1999 at the age of 80.
“It was just old age,” Susan said, recalling the loss. “But that was the first time I'd ever encountered bereavement.
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