Natasha Bedingfield has spoken out against the “very mean” treatment of her brother, Daniel Bedingfield, during the height of their fame in the mid-2000s.
The “These Words” and “Unwritten” singer burst onto the music scene in 2004 with her anthemic ode to relationship freedom, “Single”.
However, her elder brother Daniel had already achieved commercial success a few years before, scoring a Number One with his garage single “Gotta Get Thru This” in 2001.
In a new interview with The Telegraph, Natasha, 42, spoke about the impact of media attention on her and Daniel while in their twenties, suggesting that there was a media narrative that intentionally praised one sibling above the other.
“The paparazzi were always kind to me but they were very mean about my brother, just because they couldn’t have two siblings doing well at the same time,” she explained, before noting that Daniel’s experience with fame also clouded hers.
“It’s interesting what that does to a culture because even if they’re not mean to you, there’s a threat that they could be and you end up living in that fear. That culture keeps you well-behaved – in the same way that religion does. There’s a threat of going to hell or someone turning on you and hating you.”
To cope with such feelings of pressure and potential judgement, Natasha said that she tries not to internalise commentary about the things she does, whether the comments are positive or otherwise.
She continued: “My philosophy is that I don’t take anything too seriously. If people say great things or they say bad things, I just try to take it with a pinch of salt because things can change. More than ever we’re all experiencing that instant feedback now – we’re all famous aren’t we?”
In April, Daniel, now 44, spoke out about his feelings on fame, noting that although it can be necessary and “worthy of pursuit”, press attention “takes a heavy toll”.
“It’s not the fame that I was pursuing,” Daniel told the Evening Standard, “It’s singing to that many people, having that many people in the concerts, it’s connecting to the crowd and that is worth everything.”
After having success with his early music, including the ballad “If You’re Not the One”, Daniel took a hiatus from the entertainment industry and moved from the UK to Los Angeles following a car accident that changed his perspective on life.
“I did the pop star thing from nine years old till 24, I really was very focused and then I had a car crash and I suddenly realised the first memory when I woke up is I’d like to try something very different,” he said on Loose Women in April.
“I’ve done farming… homesteading, like chickens and bees and fruit trees and food, forests and ecological stuff, you know, regenerative stuff.”
