Cher Lloyd was told to date Justin Bieber and hide her marriage to boost fame

Cher Lloyd revealed in a recent interview that she was encouraged to chase after Justin Bieber to help with album sales.

The 31-year-old singer has opened up about her career and the misogyny she faced in the industry in a new interview.

The former X Factor star revealed that at the peak of her fame when she was just a teenager, she was encouraged to ‘leech’ of Justin Bieber’s fame.

She explained that she didn’t receive a promotional budget to go along with an album release in the US – and was instead given an alternative game plan.

‘I walk in and say, look I really need some cash to try and push this record. I was basically told no, but what I needed to do to make this record take off is to hit some of the clubs, find out where Bieber is and I should go try and get with him,’ she told Paul C. Brunson on the We Need to Talk podcast.

‘Justin Bieber?’ asked Paul incredulously.

‘Yes. Now this is going back years ago, years ago, I was a teenager, but I was very much with my husband at that time,’ said Cher.

‘He was even stood in that office while I was told they weren’t gonna spend any money on the album, pushing the album, and that I was to go hook up with someone mega famous and basically leech off the back of someone else’s fame.

‘Was I not good enough to invest in, that you would rather use me in that way?’ she asked rhetorically.

The Swagger Jagger singer appeared in the X Factor when she was just 16 and was hugely popular in the UK and US.

Cher married Craig Monk in 2013 when she was 20 and the couple have two children together. She spoke about how she was encouraged to keep her relationship out of the spotlight.

‘Me and Craig were about to get married and I was told by people on my team, “Do not let the label know because they will do anything to stop this marriage.”

‘The way that they thought about me getting married is once I’m married I’m “off the market”. I hate that. I’m not a singer because I want to sleep around and I want to be in different celebrity relationships.’

Speaking to Metro earlier this month, Cher revealed that she has got her spark back after taking time away from making music.

‘Everyone knows after you have babies, it can take you a little bit of time to find your spark again, but I feel like it’s definitely coming back.’

The singer’s new single, Head Down, is out now, with an EP set to follow later this year.

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