Keisha Buchanan reveals she was kidnapped at start of Sugababes career
Keisha Buchanan says she was kidnapped as a teenager and had to undergo therapy to heal from the terrifying ordeal.
Keisha Buchanan has revealed she was kidnapped as a teenager.
The 41-year-old singer revealed she was abducted and held captive for "a few hours" shortly before her GCSE exams, an experience so traumatic that her parents immediately pulled her out of mainstream education.
Speaking on Luke Hamnett’s Live, Laugh, Luke… podcast, she recalled: “I had this incident right before my GCSEs, where I was kidnapped.
“Because it was quite a traumatic experience, my parents were like, ‘Yeah, we’re going to do a different type of education.’ So I kind of finished my education, but I just couldn’t do my GCSEs.”
Keisha explained that she pushed the ordeal aside as the group’s career took off, saying she “blocked it” out and went straight into promoting the Sugababes’ debut single, 2000's Overload.
But the star also revealed that once the original line‑up - completed by Mutya Buena and Siobhán Donaghy - left the group, all three members hoped to return to school - and only the latter was welcomed back.
Keisha said: “They accepted her back.
“When Mutya and I tried to get back, they were so rude. They were like, ‘Oh no, no, no, you’re not coming back. You guys thought you were going to be these pop stars. Let’s see what’s going to happen.’ So they wouldn’t accept us back.”
The Push The Button singer described the rejection as a painful moment, especially given how young they were at the time and how abruptly their lives had changed.
Despite the difficult start, the original trio eventually found their way back to each other. Keisha, Mutya Buena and Siobhán reunited in 2012 under the name Mutya Keisha Siobhán, before finally reclaiming the Sugababes name in 2019.
Keisha is planning a tell-all book that details what she went through in the Sugababes, including the kidnapping, the numerous line-up changes, being kicked out of her own group and the fight to reclaim the band's name.
Keisha feels like a survivor due to all the trauma she has endured.
When asked how the Sugababes are still going, she answered: “Honestly, I feel like, and it sounds really cliche, but I do feel like it's by God's grace. I genuinely feel that way because the things that have happened to us behind the scenes that no one even knows, like being kidnapped, I feel like there were so many things that have happened that really, some of us shouldn't have even survived and we're standing today.”
