Susan Boyle speaks out about 'bad temper' to Piers Morgan

Susan Boyle said she panicked and thought "the dream was over" when she ended up in The Priory after losing Britain's Got Talent.

The Scottish singer, who shot to fame after appearing on the ITV1 reality show, admitted she had a bad temper but said it was a "defence mechanism" to deal with her sudden success.

In an interview with Piers Morgan, she said: "I did panic, because I'd just come second in a national competition. I didn't realise that that would be a good thing, not a bad thing."

She said she went to The Priory because she was exhausted but said she found the experience frightening.

She said: "It was a bit of a scare, a scary time for me, being in a place like that. Although very therapeutic for some people, for people like me it was very scary. I thought 'I've nobody here I know, where's my family? Where's my friends? Do I have anybody left?' I wasn't allowed to see a television, or make a phone call, 'Where was everybody?' I just felt as though I'd been dumped, it was probably the most frightening experience I'd been through.

"I felt that the dream was over. A bit of a nightmare, but a turning point. For two days I was thinking about myself, what my position was, was I stable? I knew I was, I was just tired."
Her reality show mentor, Simon Cowell, said the week after the final, where Boyle lost out to dance act Diversity, was the hardest week of his life.

He said: "She hasn't won and in her mind, genuinely, she believed nobody ever wanted to hear her sing again, it was all over, gone. And, as much as were trying to persuade her, she wouldn't listen, she couldn't deal with that, she couldn't deal with the pressure, we had a very, very difficult week. The hardest week I've ever had in my life, and for her."

See the full interview on Piers Morgan's Life Stories: Susan Boyle on ITV1 at 9.30pm Saturday November 6