Tearful Boyle ‘felt like quitting contest’

SUSAN Boyle has considered quitting Britain’s Got Talent altogether owing to the pressures of fame, show judge Piers Morgan said yesterday.

Morgan launched a defence of the 48-year-old, dubbed the Hairy Angel, who is the favourite to win, saying that she has been in “floods of tears” this week and suffering from almost crippling nerves.

Writing on his blog, Morgan said that “frightened rabbit” Boyle had fleetingly felt like throwing in the towel to escape all the attention.

He said that reading bitchy comments about her had made him feel “very, very angry”.

He wrote: “Susan is finding it very, very difficult to cope, and to stay calm.

“She has been in tears many times during the last few days, and even, fleetingly, felt like quitting the show altogether at one point and fleeing all the attention.

“She’s had to read stories and columns, and listen to radio and TV phone-ins, calling her arrogant, insincere, spoiled, fake, mad and so on.

“Now, I have been called all that and worse in my career, but I spent 20 years in Fleet Street and know how to deal with it.

“Susan Boyle has never experienced anything like this and is like a frightened rabbit in headlights.”

The finalist lost her temper in the lobby of the Wembley Plaza Hotel in north London after being “wound up” by two strangers.

Police stationed at the hotel intervened in the situation.

Boyle was photographed talking to two police officers in the car park following the incident.

A spokesman for Boyle said: “The police were escorting a journalist from the premises who had been winding Susan up.

“Susan and her sister were talking to the police telling them what had happened.”

Speaking to Nick Ferrari on LBC 97.3 radio, Morgan described the church volunteer as “an incredibly sweet, nice, gentle person who has been propelled through this show”.

“Suddenly, a month later, she’s the biggest star on the planet, and I don’t say that lightly.”

Boyle, from Blackburn, West Lothian, Scotland, was propelled into the spotlight following her audition for the ITV talent show, singing I Dreamed A Dream from the hit musical Les Miserables.

Boyle then went on to become a global internet sensation, scoring millions of hits on video site YouTube and gaining celebrity support, including that of Hollywood star Demi Moore.