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The agony behind Susan Boyle's success

Close friends plead with British media to back off

By
CAHIR O'DOHERTY,
Irish Voice Staff Writer

Published Wednesday, April 22, 2009, 8:53 AM
Updated Thursday, July 23, 2009, 5:28 PM

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Susan flashes her trademark two thumbs up to the cameras
Britains Got Talent star Susan Boyle at her front door in Blackburn,West Lothian
Photo by PA Archive/PA Photos

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Close friends of overnight singing sensation Susan Boyle have revealed the tragedy behind her TV success — and pleaded with the British media to stop making her new life a nightmare.

Irishman Fred O'Neil, who has known Boyle for 15 years, told The Irish Voice newspaper and IrishCentral.com in an exclusive interview  that Susan quit singing after the death of her Irish immigrant mother Bridget in 2007.

“She would come on the phone to me in terrible tears and sobbing and say I can’t sing any more, I don’t want to sing, there’s nothing to sing for. It was a tragic time for her. She didn’t have a lot financially either; she was living a very basic life. So her whole life now has been turned around in a minute and a half,” he said.

"When I watched her performance and saw her smiling I thought she deserves this because the death of her mother just devastated her. When you’re not married and you’re the youngest child – her sisters and brothers had all moved away from home – really it was desperately hard for her.”

O'Neil - who has begged the tabloid press in Britain to leave his friend alone - said "The reason I’m talking to you is because here in Britain the press is following this other line now,” O’Neil told IrishCentral.

“They’re kind of making a fool of her. They seem to be going out of their way to print unflattering photos of Susan. But that’s not the artist that Susan is. Many of the photos I’ve seen don’t even look like her. There’s no point in catapulting her into stardom if all she’s going to be is an object of derision.”

“I think we should let the real Susan emerge, not the tabloid version. If we do that we’ll see that she’s a gifted singer.”

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See more: irish news, susan boyle, donegal, irish immigrant, britain's got talent, irish entertainment

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