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Charlotte: I'm out of puff...
By Aidan Radnedge, Metro Last updated at 00:00am on 08.03.06
I quit: Charlotte is giving up smoking
She became famous for having the 'voice of an angel' - then became infamous for a few more devilish vices.
But Charlotte Church insists she is cleaning up her act, having quit smoking and cut down on booze.
The classical singer-turned-pop star gave up cigarettes in January and is encouraging others to do the same on No Smoking Day today.
She said: 'I smoked about 20 or 25 a day and I'd tried to give up a couple of times before, but only lasted half a day. In the past four or five months before I gave up, it was affecting my voice, my breathing control, my tone and I thought: "What am I doing here?"
'Now I've stopped it's got so much better. The first two weeks were tough and the first month I still really missed it. But I feel so much healthier now.'
Her only lapse was on her birthday last month, when she smoked two cigarettes - but felt so ill she vowed not to repeat it. Church, 20, said she took up smoking at 16 'probably because I was bored'. 'I still find it hard to drink and not smoke,' she added.
'When I go out I have to hold a cigarette, I'm so used to having it in my hand. But I don't light it. I won't be drinking so much anymore, either.'
She denied her boyfriend, Wales rugby star Gavin Henson, had put pressure on her but said: 'He was really happy when I did give up.'
