Charlotte close to tears at awards

Charlotte Church at the GQ awards
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

When it comes to being unpredictable, Charlotte Church is in a class of her own. Now she has been named Woman of the Year, an honour which might have given most people an excuse for celebration.

But instead Church, 19, chose to mark the occasion by shouting at both her mother and her rugby star boyfriend.

While the rest of the crowd at the GQ Awards partied away, the feisty Welsh singer - not normally one to let anything get between her and a good time - was unusually restrained.

At first there seemed to be nothing wrong. Church - who was wearing a backless black sequinned gown - was all smiles as she picked up the award, adding afterwards: "I am well chuffed to have won, genuinely."

When GQ's editor, Dylan Jones, spoke to her she introduced him to her parents and assured him she was having a "brilliant time." Mr Jones had just described her as a role model for women everywhere, adding: "Charlotte Church is our Woman of the Year simply because she is larger than life. She is a great singer, a tabloid giant and enjoys life to the full.

"She might not be to everyone's taste, but the fact that she doesn't care about that makes her even more wonderful."

Somewhere along the lines things began to unravel. First Church shouted at her mother, Maria. Then she started on her boyfriend, Gavin Henson, who sat by her side at the ceremony at the Royal Opera House.

By the end she was in distinctly emotional form, burying her face in her mother's shoulder as the evening drew to a close.

Still, everyone else seemed to

have a good time. When Pierce Brosnan went to pick up his editor's special award he repeated the trick he performed three years ago - downing a pint of Guinness in five seconds. Afterwards, he said: "It's all down to breathing, practice and being Irish."

Bob Geldof won an award for outstanding contribution - and deserved another for making the briefest speech of the night. "First let me apologise for my ubiquity throughout the year," he said. "You must all be as sick of me as you can possibly get." A special inspiration award went to songwriter Burt Bacharach, who received a standing ovation and said he was "very touched".

Robbie Williams presented the award for best comedians to Little Britain's Matt Lucas and David Walliams, while Stephen Daldry received award for best director for Billy Elliot from Clueless star Alicia Silverstone.

Supermodel Eva Herzigova began her presentation speech with "Hello boys".

Daniel Craig was named actor of the year and Bryan Ferry won the lifetime achievement award.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in