Sugababes singer Keisha Buchanan has revealed a disturbing experience from her teenage years in which she says she was kidnapped from school shortly before the group achieved its early chart success.
Buchanan, who joined the Sugababes at the age of 13 and went on to become one of the founding members of the original line-up, said the incident happened in 2000, around the same period the group were preparing for the release of their breakthrough single Overload, which would later reach the UK Top 10.
Speaking on the podcast Live, Laugh, Luke, the singer said she was taken from school by a man and held for several hours before being returned home. She explained that the experience had a major impact on her education and personal life at a crucial time in her teenage years.
Buchanan described how the incident unfolded in the lead-up to her GCSE examinations, a key stage of secondary education in the UK. She said the aftermath led her parents to make the decision that it was no longer safe for her to continue attending school in the normal way.
The singer told the podcast: “I had like this incident right before my GCSEs where I was kidnapped.”
She went on to explain that she was taken after the school day had finished.
“I was basically taken after school by someone.”
According to Buchanan, the ordeal lasted for several hours before she was returned home. While she did not go into further detail about the circumstances surrounding the incident or the individual involved, she said the experience left a lasting emotional impact.
Sugababes members Keisha Buchanan, Heidi Range, Mutya Buena. Featureflash Photo Agency - Shutterstock
The singer added that, at the time, she struggled to fully process what had happened as her music career with the Sugababes was beginning to take off rapidly.
The group were entering a major promotional period following the release of their debut single Overload, which marked their arrival on the UK pop scene and set the foundation for their early success.
Buchanan said that in the aftermath of the incident, her family made the decision to prioritise her safety over her education, which ultimately resulted in her missing her GCSE examinations.
She also revealed that the experience had long-term psychological effects, saying she later sought therapy from the age of 16 to help her deal with what had happened.
At the time of the incident, Buchanan was navigating an unusual dual reality — balancing early fame as part of one of the UK’s most recognisable girl groups with the pressures and vulnerabilities of adolescence.
The Sugababes had signed their first record contract in 1998 and were still in the early stages of their career when Buchanan says the kidnapping took place. Within a short period afterwards, they would go on to achieve commercial success and become one of the defining British pop acts of the early 2000s.
Reflecting on the experience in the interview, she suggested that at the time she compartmentalised what had happened in order to continue with her professional responsibilities.
The singer did not indicate whether the incident was reported further or whether any legal proceedings followed at the time, and she did not provide additional identifying details about the individual involved.
Buchanan’s account comes more than two decades after the early days of the Sugababes, a group that would go on to become one of the UK’s most successful girl bands, with multiple number-one singles and chart-topping albums in later years.
