Why is Charlotte Church hiding away from the world?
There has, in recent weeks, been much frantic activity at the country retreat of Charlotte Church and her rugby player boyfriend Gavin Henson.
Surrounded by builders, and with her new home cocooned in scaffolding, a heavily pregnant Miss Church has been anxiously overseeing the extensive refurbishments that are needed to get the £800,000 former farmhouse ready for the imminent arrival of their first child.
Scroll down for more
Charlotte's first child is due any day now
- A birthing pool has been installed in readiness for the big day in three weeks' time, and two midwives are on standby to attend the home birth Charlotte has set her heart on.
The 21-year-old has gone to great lengths in her bid to enjoy a calm, stress-free pregnancy.
Her television career has been put on hold, she has given up Cheeky Vimtos (her favourite cocktail made from port and the alcopop WKD Blue) and she has even taken up yoga.
But what should be the final, carefree days for a mother-to-be have become a nightmare for the singer and chat show host as she struggles with a series of personal problems.
In recent weeks she has had to endure hurtful stories of her boyfriend's dalliance with another woman and has faced accusations that she is to blame for his international rugby career taking a nosedive.
Furthermore, the Cardiff boutique she bought for her mother has folded and Charlotte, despite her best efforts, is under stress.
So much so that her mother Maria, who emigrated to France three months ago, recently returned in haste to be at her daughter's side.
She is constantly tired yet unable to sleep, and the radiant qualities normally associated with mothers-to-be were not in evidence this week when Charlotte threatened to "poke the eyes out" of the woman who had an affair with her beloved stepfather.
And, to add to Miss Church's woes, she is now having to deal with accusations of paranoia as she tries to shield herself and her new baby from the outside world.
She is said to have "freaked out" when she discovered that her new home in the village of St Brides Major, in the Vale of Glamorgan, is next to a busy public footpath - which, say friends, she is convinced will be used by paparazzi to try to photograph her.
Scroll down for more
Under strain? Charlotte with Gavin Henson
Not content with installing £30,000 of security equipment on the premises, including a panic button linked to the local police station, Miss Church is having a fence built around the 1.5-acre property to keep out prying eyes.
Those close to her say it is her fear of being watched that is behind her insistence on a home birth. She doesn't think a hospital will afford as much privacy.
The building of the fence is an indication of the way the former child prodigy has been feeling of late.
Some are worried that as she becomes increasingly insecure about her privacy, she is in danger of becoming a victim of her own fame.
Her desire to build her own ivory tower led her to erect 16ft wooden gates around her former home in Llandaff, Cardiff, upsetting her neighbours and landing her in trouble with town planners because she hadn't applied for permission.
She was eventually allowed to keep the prison-like structures but, ultimately, it wasn't enough for the security-seeking star, and she and Gavin, 25, decided to move to the countryside.
She says, rather grandly, that she has always fancied being a landowner (although by rural standards her new home can't really be said to possess land). But friends say that is only part of the appeal.
One of her main reasons for moving to the sticks, they say, is Charlotte's mounting insecurity over her relationship with the handsome Henson - especially her conviction that every woman he comes into contact with is after his perfectlyhoned body.
These concerns have intensified as her pregnancy has progressed and have not been placated by Henson.
Last month, Charlotte learned that the father of her baby had apparently cheated on her with 24-year-old shop assistant Tracy Donnelly during a rugby trip to Belfast last September.
According to the blonde-haired Miss Donnelly, who sold her tale to a Sunday newspaper, Henson kissed and fondled her under a table at his hotel, before inviting her to his room.
A furious Charlotte was reported to have thrown him out of their house when the story appeared, an allegation she was this week forced to deny, insisting with typical vulgarity that she and Henson are "as happy as pigs in s***".
Scroll down for more
Charlotte on holiday earlier this year
However, she has admitted she gets upset when girls come on to her boyfriend. Numerous evenings out have been ruined by his drunken flirting and her jealous rages.
And a holiday to the French ski resort of Chamonix last January was marred by arguments caused by the amount of female attention Henson received.
Charlotte has also complained that he doesn't reassure her enough. She may have a point.
Despite her saying on the eve of her 21st birthday in February that she would say "yes" should he ask her to marry him, there is still no wedding date on the horizon.
According to friends of Miss Church, Charlotte was keen to get married as soon as possible so that her bump wouldn't show through what would surely have been a top-of the-range designer wedding dress.
But Gavin talked her out of it, arguing that a wedding would interfere with his preparations for this year's Rugby World Cup.
Yet in contrast to Henson's confident assertions, his World Cup dreams have failed to materialise.
He has not been picked for the Welsh team - news that came as a crushing blow to the couple.
He has been battling an Achilles tendon injury and a knee problem, but potentially far more damaging to his career prospects are the whispers in rugby circles that his showbiz lifestyle and celebrity girlfriend are compromising his game.
Some in the sport feel that the image-conscious Gavin - who has his fake tan applied every week in a beauty salon - might be trying too hard to become the David Beckham of rugby.
As Wales's leading celebrity couple, Charlotte and Gavin are certainly the focus of attention wherever they go.
Charlotte remains fiercely proud of her Welsh roots and insists a move to London holds no appeal for her.
But friends say living in such a close-knit community, where her every move is monitored, has increasingly taken its toll - hence her rising paranoia about being watched.
"She and Gavin are the only celebrities in this part of the world, so they get all the attention," explains an associate of Henson's.
"If they were in London they would just be one of many stars, but living where they do, everyone knows their business.
"Charlotte has been feeling like she is under a microscope. It's making her unhappy."
According to this year's Rich List, the couple are worth £10 million, though friends point out that at least £9 million of that belongs to Charlotte.
As well as the millions she made during her childhood singing career, she has a lucrative contract with Channel 4, where she has established herself as a surprise talent with her near-the-knuckle chat show.
She also has a six-figure deal to promote Walkers crisps and her autobiography Keep Smiling, which comes out next month, was sold for a sizeable advance.
Yet despite this financial security, Charlotte continues to be plagued by doubts.
She was badly affected by the decision earlier this year of her mother and stepfather James Church to move to the South of France.
Their departure, coming at such a vulnerable time, left Charlotte feeling isolated and she begged them to come home.
The couple have now returned to Wales to be near her. "Charlotte needs me to be around," says Maria.
"I thought phone calls would be enough. But they weren't."
Charlotte has proved to be a fretful first-time mother-to-be. Not content with the usual two scans, at 12 and 20 weeks, she has reportedly been having extra ultrasound checks at a cost of up to £300 a time.
She has also arranged for an ambulance to be on standby outside her house while she gives birth.
Given her anxieties, it is hardly surprising that she has piled on the pounds during her pregnancy as she succumbs to bouts of comfort eating.
While she has in the past admirably spoken out against the trend for women to be superskinny, she realises she faces a massive task to lose weight before the third series of The Charlotte Church Show next year.
First, though, she will have a baby to learn to care for - a daunting prospect for any new mum, especially for one as young as Charlotte.
In time-honoured tradition, her mother will be on hand to show her the ropes.
Yet despite Charlotte's desire to have her mum close by at this time, it has often been Charlotte who has had to take on the role of parent in their relationship, shouldering the emotional burdens of her family.
In late 2005, a friend of her mother's announced she had been having an affair with James Church, the man Charlotte regards as her father.
Mr Church denied the affair but he and Maria subsequently split up for a while.
In the traumatic period that followed, Charlotte's family life fell apart, culminating in her mother taking an overdose (it was Charlotte who found her slumped on the bed in the family home).
In her forthcoming book, she will describe her 41-year-old mother as melodramatic, prone to depression and self-harming.
And she tells of the distressing day she discovered her unconscious.
"To begin with I thought she must be sleeping off a heavy night," she says.
"I shook her but she took ages coming to, so I slapped her face."
When her mother showed Charlotte the two empty bottles of sleeping pills and paracetamol, she erupted.
"I was overwhelmed by anger and gave it to her straight," she says. "I said: 'Do you want to leave me and your family? How could you? We love you.'"
The candid account of how she called an ambulance to take her mother to hospital does not make for easy reading.
But then it is a measure of how much she has had to cope with in her life that this book is her
second autobiography (the first one came out when she was 14).
Given the volatile nature of her two-and-a-half year relationship with Henson, it was perhaps inevitable that there would be snide remarks in showbiz circles that their imminent infant is a "Band Aid Baby", conceived by Charlotte to get the reticent Gavin to propose.
Yet, touchingly, of all her achievements, it is her status as Henson's girlfriend of which she appears to be the most proud. Now, as an anxious Charlotte fortifies her rural retreat in readiness for her new life with her baby and the troublesome Henson, she is, it seems, determined to do so in private.
Why is Charlotte Church hiding away from the world? | the Daily Mail
Why is 
Linear Mode
