In an interview with Marie Claire, she said of her family pretty much forcing her to audition for the X Factor: "I remember waking up, and I was like, 'Leave me the f**k alone. Stop talking about it, I don't want to do it.' Later, mum was already inside the audition place with her number. They said 'no' to her and 'yes' to me."
Of her mother, Melissa Bell, she said: "She had Soul II Soul but it didn't last as long as she wanted it to last. Then I get this big new show, I win it, and it's weird for her to see this. Although she's proud, it's like she wants to rewind time to when she was younger, when she didn't have kids. I've never talked about this by the way. We're not a perfect family. Things p*** me off."
Of the reception she gets in her native Islington, she said: "Every time I come out it's abusive names. They start singing Hallelujah and shouting 'Alexandra the Bitch'. It upsets me."
Of her 16-year-old brother's overdose in July, she said: "He wanted to die. He's going off the rails. He needs a father figure. He's not listening to my mum."
All in the name of good telly, eh.
