Susan Boyle feels "like a princess"

The Scottish music sensation - who suffered physical and emotional torment at the hands of childhood bullies - has revealed she never felt able to stand up to her tormentors because she was too afraid but she finally feels loved now.

She said: "I feel like a princess and I feel loved for the first time in my life."

Of her schooldays, she said: "Bullies were burning my clothes with a cigarette and stuff like that and trying to trip me up. It wasn`t really human. I was being hit around the head, stuff like that.

"There was really repeated name calling. It made me feel as if nobody loved me. I really didn`t matter. I was just a target. Once you give bullies that power, they`ve really got a hold on you.

"I couldn`t do the fisticuffs because, to be honest, I was an absolute coward."

Despite calling herself a "coward", Susan - who suffered from learning difficulties because she was starved of oxygen during her birth -revealed she had some other methods of dealing with her persecutors.

She explained to talk show host Oprah Winfrey: "I was hyperactive at school. I used the chase after them!"

She added: "What you do is you do well in something and you try and gain their respect in some way, and that`s what I was trying to do with my singing."

Although the 49-year-old singer - who shot to fame on Simon Cowell`s TV show `Britain`s Got Talent` - is in a happier place now, she claims that "some of the bullies are still around".

But Oprah suggested a new way to deal with her tormentors, saying: "Send them a signed autographed CD saying, `How ya like me now?` "

sections: Celebrities