Sugababes star Keisha Buchanan has revealed she was kidnapped as a teenager, explaining that the “traumatic” ordeal took place as she was juggling school with her burgeoning pop career.
The singer, now 42, was just 13 years old when she began performing with best friend Mutya Buena and fellow OG Sugababe Siobhán Donaghy.
As the trio were preparing to release their first single “Overload” in 2000, all three girls were also trying to complete their education – but Buchanan’s was cut short.
Speaking on the Live, Laugh, Luke… podcast, she told host Luke Hamnett: “I had this incident right before my GCSEs, where I was kidnapped.
“So, because it was quite a traumatic experience, my parents were, like, ‘Yeah, so we’re going to do a different type of education.’ So I kind of finished my education, but I just couldn’t do my GCSEs.”
She continued: “I was basically taken after school by someone. I think I just sort of blocked it and then had to just get back into, you know, promotion of our first single.”
The star added that she was held by the person for “a few hours”. “So for a kid, you know, it’s a long time,” she said. The singer added that she had therapy to help process the incident.
“Overload” was released in September 2000, just months after Buchanan had been due to sit her GCSEs, and peaked at number six in the UK Singles Chart.
The group’s original line-up didn’t survive for long, with Irish singer Donaghy becoming the first singer to leave in 2001, when she was swiftly replaced by Heidi Range.
Buena was the next to depart, exiting the band in 2005 and being replaced by Amelie Berrabah, while Buchanan stuck around until 2009 – when Eurovision hopeful Jade Ewan was drafted in to fill her spot.
On the Live, Laugh, Luke… podcast, Buchanan added that all three of the original line-up tried to go back to school after leaving the group, but only Donaghy was allowed to return.
“They accepted her back,” she said. “When Mutya and I tried to get back, they were so rude.
“They were like, ‘Oh no, no, no, you’re not coming back. Like you guys thought you were going to be these pop stars. Let’s see what’s going to happen’. So they wouldn’t accept us back.”
The trio reunited in 2012 and initially performed under the moniker Mutya Keisha Siobhan before reclaiming the Sugababes name in 2019.
