Charlotte Church has spoken out about a 'gross' countdown to her losing her virginity that was run in the press when she was a teenager, and a subsequent on-air offer by BBC Radio 1 presenter Chris Moyles to take her virginity.
Appearing on the Pop Tarts podcast, the singer described how the press constructed a 'narrative' around her due to a 'particular venom' for working class women. She recalled that The Sun had run a countdown to her losing her virginity, and that Moyles discussed it on his Radio 1 show.
In 2002, Moyles, then presenting the drive-time show, offered to take Church's virginity, saying he wanted to 'lead her through the forest of sexuality now she had reached 16'. The Broadcasting Standards Commission later ruled that the 'explicit sexual content and humour had exceeded acceptable boundaries'.
Church also won the Rear of the Year award at age 16, which then-Wales First Minister Rhodri Morgan called 'somewhat unsavoury'. Church admitted she accepted the award because she 'wasn't seeing myself as a youth'.
Comparing her experience to comments made about Billie Eilish when she turned 18 in 2019, Church said: 'Don't get me wrong, we've come a certain way, but there's a long way to go in terms of feminism and equality.'
