Susan Boyle reveals she was beaten, bullied as a child

Superstar says her strong Catholic faith saw her through

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Susan Boyle has revealed she was beaten as a child.

She told a British tabloid that she was hit with a belt every day by teachers and taunted by classmates because of her learning disability, caused by a lack of oxygen to her brain when she was born.

Boyle, 48, said, "You’re looking at someone who would get the belt every day. “Will you shut up — whack!"

"I was often left behind at school because of one thing or another. I was a slow learner."she told the Daily Mirror.

"I’m just a wee bit slower at picking things up than other people. So you get left behind in a system that just wants to rush on, you know? That was what I felt was happening to me."

She said, "There was discipline for the sake of discipline back then. But it’s all very different now. I think teachers are taught to understand children with learning disabilities a lot better."

"There’s nothing worse than another person having power over you by bullying you and you not knowing how to get rid of that thing."

She also revealed how her Catholic faith helped her through another great trauma of her life — the death of her mother.

"‘After mum died it didn’t fully register until maybe six months after. That’s when the loneliness set in and there was nobody around except my cat Pebbles.

"When you lose someone as powerful as your mum you feel as if a part of you is taken away and that does things to your confidence.

"My confidence was pretty down at that time. A good way of leveling it out, I found, was to tell myself that even though she’s not here physically, she is here mentally and spiritually.

"That’s what keeps you going. I have my faith, which is the backbone of who I am, really."

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