Charlotte Church was MY little angel...

 ... but I was driven out of her life

Church's real dad reveals family's secret heartache for first time

By Dominic Herbert and Don Lucey

CHARLOTTE Church's real dad today breaks his silence over his shattered relationship with the chart sensation — and reveals how he begged to be part of her life.

In an exclusive interview with the News of the World, Stephen Reed tells of his desperate bid to make contact with the 19-year-old Voice of an Angel star.

He once got as close as being in the SAME house as Charlotte—but the millionaire singer refused to see him, fearing he was just after her cash.

But Stephen, who has been declared bankrupt twice, vowed: "The money's irrelevant. I just want to get to know my daughter. What father wouldn't?"

For years he was banished from seeing Charlotte and gagged from talking about her but now at last he is free to tell his story.

Stephen, 40, who has remarried and has two teenage sons, last made contact with his daughter in 2002 when she had run away to be with her first boyfriend, Steven Johnson. It was more than 13 years since he had seen her.

"I called at the Johnson house and was in the dining room, with Charlotte upstairs in the bedroom.

"Her boyfriend actually rang her mobile and told her I was there. She didn't believe him, so he handed me the phone.

"Taking a deep breath, I said, ‘Hi Charlotte, it's Steve Reed, your dad.' "She said, ‘You've been speaking to the papers.' I told her I hadn't, but she didn't say anything for a short time—then she hung up. I was destroyed by that."

By then Charlotte had earned millions as Britain's favourite child star and a chart-topping classical performer. She had met world leaders like Bill Clinton and performed for the Pope.

Proud Stephen's mind raced back to the moment his famous daughter almost didn't make it into the world.

He met her mum Maria, now 39. the next year Maria found she was expecting and they got engaged. But the pregnancy proved difficult and after she suffered an asthma attack a foetal monitor was attached to Maria.

"I watched the screen as it showed the baby's heartbeat," said Stephen, whose full story will be detailed in a new biography of Charlotte by author Don Lucey.

"Then without warning there was a continuous bleep and a flat line a. I thought I was going to lose my baby. Maria was rushed into the operating theatre, but after a long, wait the emergency caesarean was successful." But 18 months later the joy turned to acrimony.

"After a spectacular row I grabbed my motorcycle helmet, put little Charlotte inside my leather jacket still sucking her dummy and sped off to my mum's place," said Stephen.

As her parents' relationship collapsed, Charlotte went back to her mum. But Maria, who was now dating James Church, told Stephen he could still see his daughter. The arrangement continued for nearly two years until, Stephen claims, access dried up.

So in 1991, when Charlotte was four, he just turned up at the home of Maria's parents where they were all staying. "I knocked on the door and Charlotte opened it," he told us. "It was a lovely surprise for her.

However, Stephen says Maria's family appeared, ushered Charlotte inside and told him they wanted him to have nothing more to do with her. "I was devastated," he said.

He says he wasn't even told when her singing career took off. And he remembers the moment he discovered his daughter was a star. "I was in Cardiff railway station and saw a picture of Charlotte on a big billboard," he told us.

"Since then it's been up and up for her. It's been fantastic to watch. I'm very proud."

But in 1999, Stephen—once jailed for fiddling the books—suffered another setback—when Charlotte's stepdad James successfully applied to adopt her.

But Stephen still has to deal with the worries of watching his daughter's teenage traumas—but feels frustrated at being unable to help her. He has followed the tales of binge drinking and boyfriend troubles. "The boys she's gone out with have been wrong for her," he says. "But Gavin Henson the rugby player does seem to be a gentleman."

Stephen's full story will appear in Don Lucey's forthcoming biography, Secrets Of An Angel.