Charlotte Church was robbed of the chance to tell her family she was secretly pregnant when a British newspaper printed the story.
The Welsh singer gave evidence at the Leveson Inquiry into press standards on Monday (28Nov11) and told the hearing she was devastated when her secret baby news leaked to the media.
She claims during the early stages of her pregnancy with daughter Ruby in 2007, only her then-partner - rugby ace Gavin Henson - and her doctor were aware she was expecting.
But a British newspaper ran a story "speculating" on her healthier lifestyle and expanding figure - and she was devastated it meant she missed out on surprising her family with the happy news.
Church told the hearing in London, "My family were really upset that I hadn't told them first and that it had come out in this way... It was my news to tell and that opportunity was taken away from me."
The singer is convinced the confirmation of her pregnancy came from a private investigator hacking her cell phone messages, adding: "The source cited was probably a hacked voicemail from my doctor... I don't have any evidence my phone was hacked but I didn't tell anybody (I was pregnant). I hadn't told anybody apart from when I went to (my doctor) so I just can't see that it came from any other area."
Church told the committee that after Ruby was born, she tried to keep it secret for a week but the story was published two days later - causing her to accuse her family of leaking the news and forcing her to "cut people out of my life" to lessen the chance of further leaks.
The former child star also recounted an incident in 2002 when a British publication ran a clock counting down the days to her 16th birthday - the age of consent in the U.K.
She said, "It was a countdown clock, it ran for maybe more than a month - a countdown to my 16th birthday. The innuendo of the age of my passing of consent (sic) - the age at which I could have sex. And it was a countdown to that date, which is a little bizarre. It was just horrible. I was a 16-year-old girl and I was just really uncomfortable with it."
The Leveson Inquiry was set up to review standards in the British media after the News of the World phone hacking scandal earlier this year (11).