Sunday Mail, 25 May 2008

Sharleen Spiteri on how she has found new love after heartache

By Billy Sloan In Paris

IN a backstage corridor of a run-down Parisian theatre the silence is shattered by a furious row between Sharleen Spiteri and her boyfriend on the phone.
"You never listen to a word I'm saying...you're on the phone shouting as usual," she snaps in exasperation.
"I've tried for the last two years and it didn't work...there's no point in this."
The Scots pop star punches the wall in anger, slams down the phone and starts to cry, mascara running down her cheeks.
It's a painful conversation Sharleen repeats 25 times over the next two hours - as she shoots a video for her first solo single All The Times I've Cried.
It's a definite case of art imitating life. In 2005 the Texas singer, 40, split with her partner, magazine editor AshleyHeath, after a 10-year relationship. The couple have a six-year-old daughter, Misty Kyd.
Until now the star has fiercely guarded her private life. But when she wrote songs for debut solo album Melody - released on July 7 - it proved impossible to keep her emotions under wraps.
Songs such as All The Times I've Cried, Stop I Don't Love You Anymore and Where Did It Go Wrong? deal frankly with the break-up.
As Sharleen relaxed between takes at the Theatre Trianon in the seedy Pigalle area of Paris, she opened her heart for the first time about splitting with Ashley.
She said: "I'd been in a relationship for years. I'd had a child. I didn't ever see myself as a single mum but suddenly I was.
"I'm sad it happened but my daughter has two parents who love her very much. There's no animosity between me and Ashley and we communicate for Misty.
"It's just her parents do not live in the same house.
"I didn't think, 'I'm going to write an album about my split.' It was just the place my head was in at the time.
"It was almost as if I'd dumped everything that happened tome since I broke up with Ashley into a big suitcase.
"All I've gone through is what thousands of other women go through. This record was more personal. For the first time, it was about me."
Sharleen has no regrets about wearing her heart so firmly on her sleeve. Writing lyrics for the songs proved a cathartic process which let her move on in her life.
She said: "The lyrics are bitter sweet. I tried to make it positive so it wasn't all 'oh poor me'.
"But when I went into the studio my old bandmates weren't there. I was alone so you could almost see the little cracks in Sharleen.
"I had to lift a barrier for this record. There were points where I was worried I was giving just too much of myself away.
"I wasn't sure I wanted people to see my weaknesses and examine my emotions.
"If I hadn't written these songs, I would still be hiding. The point of making this record was to be honest.
"I needed to make a few changes to get my head straight again. But nobody has died. I'm ready for my next adventure - that's my attitude."
Sharleen shot the video with Olivier Dahan, the French movie director who made La Vie En Rose, the Edith Piaf bio-pic.
In the promo, Sharleen portrays an actress who goes for an audition.
Away from the video set, the Scots star could not be happier. The new love in her life is Welsh celebrity chef Bryn Williams, 29.
He trained under Hell's Kitchen star Marco Pierre White and took over top London restaurant Odette's, where he met Sharleen in 2006.
Sharleen said: "There's nothing better than having a good-looking man who can cook."
Sharleen is a doting mum who values her time with Misty, her number one fan. She said: "I appeared on Later With Jools Holland and switched on the TV at home to see it.
"Misty was watching and I was off packing her school bag so she didn't know I'd come into the room.
"When the camera spun round to me, I heard her say, 'That's my mum.' I felt quite proud."