Charlotte Church 'wowed' by Gavin Henson's dancing

Charlotte Church said efficiency was key to being successful working mother

Singer Charlotte Church says her ex-boyfriend Gavin Henson had wowed her with his waltz on Strictly Come Dancing.

The singer said dancing was a skill that her former partner kept hidden during their relationship.

Charlotte, 23, said: "I thought his waltz was brilliant, I was super shocked because he was never ever a dancer. I'd never really seen him dance to be honest.

"His salsa was okay, not bad."

The Cardiff-born singer, who has children Ruby, three, and 21 month old Dexter with Wales and Ospreys rugby star Henson, who she split from earlier this year, is busy promoting her new album.

Charlotte told BBC Radio Wales her best friend acts as a live-in nanny to help her with the children while she is working away.

The singer said the key to her managing life as a working mother was "to be efficient".

"It is quite tough to try and organise it all but I think as long as you're efficient and you think ahead, plan ahead and try and schedule things carefully then it's okay, it's not too bad.

Charlotte Church with BBC Radio Wales presenters Jamie Owen and Louise Elliott

"When I'm working then I'm working flat out trying to fit as much in as I can while I'm away from the children.

"Then as soon as I go back I've got my house to clean, clothes to wash, kids to feed, so it's kind of non-stop."

Charlotte said she had found her musical feet with her new album and described her new sound as "between folk and singer/songwriter pop".

The singer told the Jamie and Louise programme her new album, which she worked on with her new partner, musician Jonathan Powell, was "raw and honest".

"There's definitely a bit of pain on there. I think - especially when you put it into an art form - there is definitely a sort of beauty in the pain.

"There's a song called Snow which Jon Powell wrote and it's so painful but it's so beautiful.

"And there's a song I wrote for my mother called The Story of Us".

"It's about how much of a nightmare and ridiculously high maintenance and hard work my mother is! But it's also about how much I love her and though she is all of these things that I love her unconditionally because she's my mother."

'Really tough'

Charlotte, who rose to fame as a classical artist, said she wanted to protect her children from media attention.

"Contrary to popular belief where people think we courted the press we never have," she said.

"It's not my choice to be in these gossip magazines and tabloids day after day.

"We did do a few things when the children were born with OK! magazine or whatever mainly because we didn't want the clamour of the photographers trying to get the first photo because that would have been unsafe.

"We put all the money in trust for our children. That's the only time we ever kind of really courted the press so to speak.

"But it's hard, it's really tough and it's really starting to get to me nowadays, it's never bothered me so much in the past.

"It's because the children are involved, it's because they're getting worse and worse - there's less and less truth in it they can pretty much say whatever they want.

"I feel a bit jaded so I think I am going to have to start suing which is a bore but otherwise if they get away with it they can write whatever they want if there's never any repercussions."