Susan Boyle Is Crying–and My Heart Bleeds

Tony Marsh / AP Photo Susan Boyle became an emotional wreck, reports The Daily Beast’s Piers Morgan, a judge on Britain’s Got Talent, as the global spotlight and the U.K.’s media jackals pick her apart. After her second place finish on the show, he has a message: Leave poor Susan alone.

Imagine, if you will, being anonymous for 47 years of your life, and then suddenly being propelled into genuine world superstardom. For many people, it would be a dream come true. All that fame and attention, and the prospect of all that money to come with it down the line.

But let me tell you now, there is a downside to fame. People start criticizing you, sniping at you, trying to trip you up, belittle you, harass you. The pressure from sudden global success can be enormous. Everywhere you go, people recognize you and want a piece of you—an autograph, a photo, a quick song, a chat to their mum on a mobile phone. You can’t go out anymore without being mobbed in the streets. You can’t nip down to the supermarket for a pint of milk or go to the paper shop.

Susan’s just a sweet, middle-aged lady from a Scottish village, who can’t really comprehend the sheer scale of what’s happened to her.

That pressure, too, can take its toll on close family and friends. They don’t know quite how to deal with it either. Suddenly they’re all caught up in this insane, relentless goldfish bowl. All the fun of being propelled into international acclaim starts to disappear. And you start to feel jittery, self-conscious, paranoid, and fractious.

Then imagine, too, having all this go on when you are days away from the final of a competition that can make or break your career and your life. A competition that everyone expects you to win, a fact that in itself piles on even more pressure.

This is exactly the situation that Susan Boyle now finds herself in.

And my heart absolutely bleeds for the poor woman.

I picked up the papers this morning, and saw a load of headlines ridiculing Susan for a supposed incident where she is said to have heard me tell Shaheen Jafagholi he had given the "best singing performance of the semifinals" and gone mad—flicking V-signs and shouting "**** off," before storming off to her hotel bedroom.

She was said to be angry because I, her "favorite judge," had backed another contestant. Susan denies this happened, and I wasn’t there, so I don’t know what really went on. But I’ve seen the photos of her arguing with policemen after a furious altercation with a reporter who later asked her about it, and I’ve read the incredibly bitchy comments exploding all over various Web sites about her behavior.

And you know what? It made me very, very angry.

Susan Boyle is a very kind, generous-hearted lady who has had a pretty tough life. She was deprived of oxygen during her birth, and that left her with "learning difficulties," causing her to be called "Simple Susan" at school.

Rather than feel sorry for herself she dedicated all her time to helping her aging, ailing mother until she died two years ago. She’s never married, and memorably declared she’d "never even been kissed." But she’s always, according to people who knew her well, been a fun-loving, popular woman who would do anything to help others, including devoting considerable unpaid time and effort to her local church and community as a volunteer.

I’m not saying she’s a saint. But I am saying that before all this fuss, Susan was generally considered by everyone who met her to be a genuinely lovely person. Albeit, one with a lively, feisty character, and a wonderfully eccentric sense of humour. That’s why I feel so upset to see all the distress she is currently suffering from all the media and public furor.