Tearful Boyle considers quitting
Susan Boyle
Susan Boyle has considered quitting 'Britain’s Got Talent' altogether due to the pressures of fame, show judge Piers Morgan said today.
Morgan launched a defence of the 48-year-old, dubbed the ’Hairy Angel’, who is the favourite to win, saying that she has been in “floods of tears” this week and suffering from almost crippling nerves.
Writing on his internet blog, Morgan said that “frightened rabbit” Boyle had fleetingly felt like throwing in the towel to escape all the attention.
He said that reading bitchy comments about her had made him feel “very, very angry”.
He wrote: “Susan is finding it very, very difficult to cope, and to stay calm.
“She has been in tears many times during the last few days, and even, fleetingly, felt like quitting the show altogether at one point and fleeing all the attention.
“She’s had to read stories and columns, and listen to radio and TV phone-ins, calling her arrogant, insincere, spoiled, fake, mad and so on.
“Now, I have been called all that and worse in my career, but I spent 20 years in Fleet Street and know how to deal with it.
“Susan Boyle has never experienced anything like this and is like a frightened rabbit in headlights.”
The finalist lost her temper in the lobby of the Wembley Plaza Hotel in north London after being “wound up” by two strangers.
Police stationed at the hotel intervened in the situation.
Boyle was photographed talking to two police officers in the car park following the incident.
A spokesman for Boyle said: “The police were escorting a journalist from the premises who had been winding Susan up. Susan and her sister were talking to the police telling them what had happened.”
Speaking on UK radio, Morgan described the church volunteer as “an incredibly sweet, nice, gentle person who has been propelled through this show.
“Suddenly, a month later, she’s the biggest star on the planet and I don’t say that lightly...
“Anybody who has gone through that incredible transformation is going to be feeling the most unbelievable pressure, not least of which because the final is on Saturday and she knows that everything may rest on that one performance and you could see the nerves almost crippling her on the semi-final show and I just think it’s time that everyone slightly backed off...
“Knowing her as I do, she’s been incredibly upset this week. She’s been in floods of tears.”
Boyle, from Blackburn, West Lothian, was propelled into the spotlight following her audition for the ITV talent show, singing 'I Dreamed A Dream' from the musical 'Les Miserables'.
She went on to become a global internet sensation, scoring millions of hits on video site YouTube and gaining celebrity support including that of Hollywood star Demi Moore.
Morgan told the radio station that talk of Boyle’s hotel outburst had been “massively exaggerated...
“She is getting this ferocious attention and my heart does go out to her a bit.
“She is really upset about all this and apparently she’s really upset that she may have offended me.
“You know what, Susan, all you have to concentrate on now is doing an amazing performance on Saturday.
“You’re the red-hot favourite. There are people who want you to fail.
“There are people who want to snipe at you, who want to kick you because now suddenly you’re so popular.
“All she has to do is do a great performance.”
