Katherine Jenkins Admits To Using Drugs

Katherine Jenkins is not exactly in my list of recommended artists or someone I would generally cover here on Brit Music Scene. But the Welsh opera singer recently signed a huge record deal in the States and on the verge of global stardom, has now admitted to having taken drugs.

Neither of those news items are ones I expected to report but when put together they add up to an intriguing story.

Jenkins is a gifted soprano from Wales who has sold over four million albums already even though she’s only 28 years of age. She’s been in the public eye since around 2003, but is really only now moving up to the next level, signing the biggest classical recording deal in history, with Warner Music snapping her up for $10 million.

Now, on the verge of taking America by storm with both her beautiful looks and voice, Jenkins has told The Daily Mail all about her drug-taking days. She clearly felt it better to get this skeleton in her closet out in the open before she became a truly household name.

“It’s not something I ever wanted to talk about publicly, because taking drugs is the biggest regret of my life. But I’ve always tried to be honest about my life and I’ve had sleepless nights… because I knew I’d lied.”

“A lot of people I was around at the time were taking drugs openly when we went out together, and
I resisted for a long time but after a while I just joined in. We’d all been drinking and when we got back to my friend’s house, I was offered cocaine by someone. Having said no so many times before, curiosity just got the better of me and I said yes. I thought it would be fun, because everyone else seemed to be having a good time after taking cocaine.”

“I also tried Ecstasy and MDMA, which is the powder form of Ecstasy. That had a totally different effect, a really massive one. I took half a pill the first time, and it made me feel excited, passionate, in love with everyone and everything, and really happy, very very happy. I took Ecstasy pills after that four or five times, and MDMA too. But afterwards that made me feel worse than cocaine. I didn’t want to live the next day, it made me feel so depressed. It was horrible, just horrible.”

Wow, not just a bit of weed then, no, Jenkins was a proper druggie, trying class-A drugs such as coke and ecstasy. It seems the opera world has its very own Amy Winehouse character, although unlike Amy, Jenkins stopped doing it as soon as she got a record deal and consequently never spiraled in to the pit that Winehouse now finds herself in.

What this does show is that no-one is immune to drugs, with even the most innocent-looking people sometimes dragged in to that world. It’s how you deal with the problem and get yourself out of that world that determines your ultimate destiny.

[Photo Source: From Newscom with permission]