Cher Lloyd was a softly spoken 16 year old when she shyly introduced herself to the X Factor judges before unleashing one of the most memorable auditions ever.
The singer - who turns 28 today - had jaws on the floor with her rendition of Turn My Swag On. Mentor Cheryl, 39, was immediately hooked.
"You are right up my street," the floored Girls Aloud star told the schoolgirl from Malvern, Worcestershire.
But sadly, Cher's dreams came crashing down as she struggled to cope with the pressures of fame and performing. Incidents of alleged diva behaviour saw her branded the 'most hated teen' in Britain - a brutal label that would take her years to bounce back from.
The tide of public opinion harshly first turned when Cheryl controversially put Cher though the Boot Camp stage to the detriment of favourite Gamu Nhengu.
Rumours of backstage strops began to fly, and Cher admitted she was forced to perform in Cheryl's heels after having an meltdown over her X Factor outfit.
She allegedly pulled out of a Narnia premiere at the last minute and also fled a secret mid-week concert in tears. Judge Louis Walsh branded her "too big for her boots".
But looking back, Cher said the pressure, coupled with her tender age, turned her into somebody she wasn't.
“I was a beast! Everyone hated me," Cher admitted to Fabulous magazine in 2012.
"I was young and foolish. Part of me was trying to show I was strong enough to do it, and then I think it all got too much for me.
"I was angry with the way I was being edited and because of that I turned into this horrible person, with a terrible attitude.”
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Cher was eliminated in the first round of the finals and ended up clashing with mentor Cheryl after she accused her of abandoning her.
"I didn't have her mobile number to begin with. I've got more chance of winning the lottery than catching up with her," she said on the release of her hit single, Swagger Jagger.
And asked if she'd do a duet with Cheryl, Cher hit back with a barb about using autotune and challenged her mentor to sing live with her.
Cheryl was raging and tweeted: "Be Careful who you kick on your way up .. They kick you twice as hard on your way back down.. #unappreciationisugly.
Cher moved to the States in 2012 and achieved a number 12 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with Want You Back.
Her second US single Oath only scraped in at number 73 and in 2014 she split with her American label Epic.
Meanwhile, she'd met and fallen in love with London hairdresser Craig Monk, who she married in a secret ceremony in November 2013 aged just 20 and after less than a year of dating.
And appearing on Loose Women, she gushed about their idyllic relationship.
She said: "I got married when I was 20, you know when you grow up and dream of that fairy tale of course we've had our ups and downs, but honest it is like a fairy tale with me and him.
"We lived [in Los Angeles] for a while, that was like a dream, fortunately we went over I had one suitcase and I thought I was just going for a bit of promo, and we ended up staying there about three or four years."
After moving back to the UK, they lived a simple life, renovating a house in Essex to sell on and welcoming daughter Delilah-Rae in May 2018.
But despite her domestic peace, professionally Cher said she was still tormented by her past - so much so that she refuses to perform Swagger Jagger because it triggers memories of her "angry, afraid" self.
“I’m mother to a little girl. I’ve released two albums and I’ve got a top 10 hit in America. I’m not ‘the most hated teen’, I’m 26 years old! We’ve moved on!” she told the Guardian.
"I had to do damage control. Years later, I do have some anger towards people for doing that to me.”
When it comes to Cheryl, while Cher told Lorraine in 2018 that although she "hadn't heard from her for a long time", they did reach out to each other on Twitter.
"We made up ages ago, I got married and she tweeted me," she said.
"And then when she got married, I tweeted her. It would be nice to bump into her, everything is fine. There was never really an issue, but it was back when I was 16. This gob just run away with it."
As for her reputation, Cher says that is something she's trying to take ownership of and work past.
"Looking back I can see why people thought I was a nightmare and I'm totally embarrassed," she told the Guardian.
"That's one of the hardest things for me to deal with because that's my past and you've sort of got to look at it as a huge learning experience. It's literally like taking your trousers down and doing a p**s in front of the world."
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