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Rebecca Ferguson and the price of modern fame

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25th Jun 2015
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You think you know your friends. You believe they have your best interests at heart. Right up until it turns out that they’re posing as a finance professional and fleecing you.

At least that’s what happened to Rebecca Ferguson, a pop singer that emerged from the Simon Cowell’s musical conveyor belt The X-Factor in 2010. Ferguson’s (former, I would assume) friend Rachel Taylor swindled more than £20,000 from Ferguson.

Taylor’s con was offering Ferguson financial advice (including setting up trust funds for her daughter) despite having zero qualifications. An agreement was reached whereby Taylor would look after Miss Ferguson's business affairs and she was paid between £500 and £600 a week.

The real kick-in-the-guts is that she told the singer she needed her loyal support to avoid falling prey to conmen. OK then, Mrs. Taylor. Ferguson finally cottoned on to Taylor’s misdeeds around Christmas 2012, after paying Taylor £3,350 to set up a trust fund for her daughter she failed to receive any paperwork.

I find the whole story quite sad. Ferguson’s victim statement showed a young, naïve woman who merely trusted too much.  By her own admission, she’s from a “humble background”. It would seem Ferguson is yet another young person who was ill prepared for the financial pitfalls of fame.

This latest case is emblematic of the reality TV culture from which Ferguson’s fame emanated. Ferguson was exploited for ratings, thrust into fame with no preparation for what that means. Cowell and reality-industrial complex was only concerned about her value as a property and when they were finished with her, she was left to fend for herself.

It’s easy to see Taylor as an aberration and laugh the case off. But she’s just another part of an exploitative industry.

Shame, really.  

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