The 39-year-old has previously claimed she was hacked by the defunct News Of The World newspaper at the age of 16, after which the publisher News Group Newspapers paid substantial damages to her and offered “sincere apologies”.
Church told The Big Issue: “At that time the press intrusion was insane, there was all sorts of dark stuff going on with the media taking over the narrative.
“I know a lot of teenagers feel like things are unfair, but the sense of injustice I felt was so keen, it felt like a knife to the skin, reading these terrible things on the daily.
“Phone hacking was going on, but we didn’t know about it yet. Stories were in the paper all the time, and lots of things were blown up, misconstrued, made seedy, when they really weren’t.
“There was a lot of shame being thrown towards me. The press was desperately trying to make me a figure of sin and push this ‘fallen angel’ narrative. I knew it wasn’t right.
“That sense of burning, fiery, ‘f*** you’ kept me protected. If I had let that shame in or internalised it, my life could have gone in a very different way.”
It comes as Church is due to appear on The Celebrity Traitors as part of a cast of 19 famous faces, including Thursday Murder Club star Celia Imrie, retired Olympic diver Tom Daley, comedian Alan Carr and actor Stephen Fry, when the show launches on October 8.
The show will see the celebrities gather in the Highlands of Scotland for the chance to win a cash prize of up to £100,000 (€114,000) for a charity of their choice.
Carr (49) has said he will be doing “no comedy” as part of his plan to win The Celebrity Traitors.
Asked whether he had a strategy for the game, the Chatty Man star said: “There will be a different side to me. I’ll have to adapt; no comedy, it’s one of those shows where you have to shape-shift.
“I don’t think it’s a case of how good you are at being a traitor or a faithful.
“It’s how you adapt and how you draw on your social skills.”
Fellow contestant TV chat show presenter Jonathan Ross said his lack of trust for celebrities would help him on the show.
He explained: “I’ve watched all the versions around the world and I love playing games.
“I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be in the castle. It’s one of those experiences that money can’t buy to actually be in The Traitors after you’ve watched it so many times.
“Because, of course, we all watch it at home and love it at home, and I’m really fascinated to find out how it feels to be right in the middle of the action.
“Also, because I don’t trust any celebrities, I think I’m going to immediately assume they’re all traitors.”
The show, presented by Claudia Winkleman, sees contestants try to detect the traitors in the group while completing a series of challenges to win funds to contribute towards the prize pot.
If at the end of the series a traitor is left among the finalists, the traitor wins the full prize.
The Celebrity Traitors launches on Wednesday October 8 at 9pm on BBC One. From then on there will be two episodes per week on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.independent.ie ’
