COMEBACK QUEEN: ‘I REALLY DISLIKED MYSELF – BUT NOW I'VE FOUND HAPPINESS'

TEN YEARS AFTER HER X FACTOR DEBUT REBECCA FERGUSON TELLS OK!’S MICHELLE GARNETT HOW SHE HAS LEARNED TO WISE UP SPOT THE FAKERS AND LOVE HERSELF

- MICHELLE GARNETT

When Rebecca Ferguson reached the X Factor finals in 2010 she was a shy, 24-year-old single parent chasing big dreams. But although she achieved the success she deserved, she has also suffered heartbreak and betrayal at the hands of former partners and trusted friends.

In recent years she has kept out of the spotlight, focusing on her own happiness and that of her family. She has three children – Lillie May, 15, and Karl, 14, with her ex Karl Dures, and five-year-old Arabella, whose father she split with not long after the birth.

Now, having sought therapy and spent a year living in Paris, the Liverpudlian singer feels stronger than ever. Not only has she met The One in boyfriend Jonny, she’s learned to like herself too.

Rebecca has also been working on her fifth album with legendary musician Nile Rodgers, and has released a new single, Nothing Left But Family – a soulful number that namechecks her youngest child and reflects on Rebecca’s down-to-earth personality.

Rebecca, 33, who briefly dated One Direction’s Zayn Malik and Bros singer Matt Goss, tells OK! how she used to hate the way she looks, reveals her plans for marriage and kids with Jonny and reflects on the advice she’d give herself as an X Factor wannabe...

You say your previous albums came from a place of sadness, but your new songs come from a place of happiness. What has changed?