Charlotte Church says she would be dead without dad's help

Charlotte Church has said she "would be dead" without the influence of her father, after growing up in the spotlight.

The Cardiff-born singer opened up on her close relationship with her father, James Church, in public speaking coach Deborah Thomas's podcast, These Three Things.

Church, 39, credited her dad with helping her navigate the "child star route", adding: "It's so arduous and there are so many temptations along the way, and so it would have been so easy for me to have fallen into addiction..."

In the interview, the star said she had a "lot going on" and that her father, who has a terminal diagnosis of rare blood disorder amyloidosis, was currently in hospital.

During the podcast, which asks guests to share a special person, place and possession which has shaped them, Church said her father was an "absolutely extraordinary human" who had been through "so much", including battling septicaemia seven times.

Describing the start of her career as a child touring with mother Maria, she said: "We really missed him on the road. My family aren't very traditional in any way at all, and so my father was far more sort of like the nurturing one."

The singer, who recently appeared on Celebrity Traitors, was just 11 years old when she rose to global fame and earned the moniker the Voice of an Angel.

Church said her father joined them on the road after a year and would help take care of her while her mother dealt with the business side of her career, describing him as like "the hearth".

"He was sort of worldly and wise enough that he could ground me in a perspective, ground me in the transience of it all, and that it probably wouldn't be forever, and just [try] to say let's enjoy it while it's here."

Church, who runs a wellness retreat in the Nant Caethon Valley in Powys, said it had been a "journey" since her father's terminal diagnosis nearly a decade ago.

"Pretty much every year in those nine years, he's had a near-death experience where it's like something's happened.

"He has really had to tolerate this rollercoaster of health and emotions and everything associated. But it's also a very long time to live with a terminal diagnosis, and so it's massively changed him."

Speaking about her father's impact on her life, Church added: "I'm making him a photo album, and I think that'll be very emotional for us to go through.

"But in general, I am able to tell him what he means to me, and how he has massively shaped my life and shaped who I am.

"Without him, I'd be dead."