Will Young has said he is suing his former preparatory boarding school and detailed the ‘abuse’ he witnessed suffered by students.
The Evergreen singer, 44, said he was involved in a ‘big civil legal case’that was ‘ongoing’ with his former school.
Young, who shot to fame after winning Pop Idol in 2002 beating Gareth Gates, explained that ‘singing has always been a little escape’ since being at ‘a very abusive boarding school.’
Asked further about the ‘ongoing’ legal proceedings, the Light My Fire hitmaker said: ‘I think I can say I’m in legal proceedings concerning physical abuse, what the school knew about that and a particular person.
‘I was surrounded by monsters. When it does go to court you’ll know exactly what happened, but I can tell you what I saw, which was children being punched in the stomach, thrown down stairs, heads banged against radiators.
Young continued to the Daily Mail that his twin brother, Rupert, who died by suicide in 2020 at the age of 41, was ‘lifted up by his throat and shoved against a bookcase in the library by a teacher.’
‘This place was not normal,’ he added.
Young has previously spoken about his childhood of sexual abuse and violence at the school.
He first opened up about the horror in a 2021 interview with The Guardian and has now revealed how he and other children were manipulated into keeping quiet.
Speaking to Mariella Frostrup on Times Radio, he said that ‘ironically,’ he felt ‘very fortunate’ to be sent to the private school.
His parents ‘didn’t have a lot of money,’ and the school would constantly remind him how hard his parents were working to send him there, a type of messaging Will points out ‘often happens when people are in abusive situations.’
‘My dad just set up his business. It was a recession… so you keep quiet as a child, Absolutely.’
Young said that if his ‘incredible’ parents had ever caught wind of the physical and sexual abuse, ‘they would have taken me out of that school in two seconds’.
The All Time Long singer reiterated the horrors he and other children were subjected to at the school, and said that for five years, some of the adults he lived among ‘were sexual predators’.
‘We had a person that would look at our penises, and we’d have to cover up ourselves in the baths and showers,’ he told the show.
‘We were allowed to have a phone, and that was ripped out of the wall twice.
‘I saw a child thrown across the room, I saw a child’s head bashed into the radiator.’
He also traced his PTSD back to the abuse and fear he suffered at the school.
Metro.co.uk has contacted the preparatory boarding school for comment.
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