What's the average girl's ultimate fantasy? How about a multi-million pound singing career, audiences with the Pope, the Queen, Bill Clinton and, erm, Will Smith? Being voted Rear Of The Year and becoming a teenage sex symbol? Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? We won't mention Charlotte Church's appearance on Heartbeat, but you get the idea.

Charlotte Church was born in 21 February 1986 in Llandaff, Cardiff. A love of music and performance came at an early age: "When I was three-and-a-half, I sang Ghostbusters with my cousin at a seaside holiday camp in Caernarfon," she remembers. "When we'd finished, she left the stage but I refused to go. They had to drag me off!"

Her big break came when she performed Pie Jesu on the television show Talking Telephone Numbers in 1997, closely followed by a show-stealing appearance on The Big, Big Talent Show. This led to concerts at Cardiff Arms Park, the Royal Albert Hall and an opening spot for Shirley Bassey in Antwerp.

Her classical career took her around the world as she sold millions, but it was as a pop singer that she seemed to find her own feet as an artist in her own right. The album Tissues And Issues contained the hit Crazy Chick and firmly re-positioned her in the pop world.

But if was not the success she hoped it would be, despite a couple of top 10 singles. Her pop career has been put on indefinite hiatus as she concentrated first on her TV show then on motherhood.