The X Factor star Jahmene Douglas has opened up about the abuse and suffering his family suffered at the hands of his father.
The mild-mannered contestant has won the public over with his shy demeanour and amazing vocals, but he is hiding a dark secret about his past.
Jahmene's mum Mandy was put through a terrifying cycle of abuse and torture by his father Eustace, who is currently in jail for attacking her with a blowtorch.
Opening up about his ordeal, he tells The Sun: "Every day I thought, 'I'm going to die today.' It was just torture. It would turn my stomach every time I saw my father. I was living in fear.
"He would flip over anything - you didn't lie, you didn't swear, you didn't put a foot out of place.
"But he'd always find something. Then you'd never know what he would do. There was a spectrum of things: Hitting you with a belt or a spatula, beating or strangling you."
After his dad was jailed for nine years for an attack on Mandy, which lasted three days, the family went into refuges and continually had to change their names to stay safe.
The singer adds: "I was Tom, Jay, John, Sean... but I always told my friends I was Jahmene.
"Once, the authorities even suggested we move to Australia but we didn't want him to have that much control."
But the misery for the family got even worse after Jahmene's brother Daniel committed suicide.
He reveals: "I thought, 'What else can you throw at me?' Daniel had said it was like living in a box and we couldn't get out. His death switched me off.
"I'm still quite switched off now. We were close. He wanted me to be a singer. I kept trying to talk to him to lighten him up.
"I knew he was troubled but you take them for granted when you're related to them. You don't think they're going to... I was close to doing what he did. But after that I never thought about it again."
The star is now backing an anti-domestic violence campaign on behalf of Woman's Aid to help those who are also suffering at the hands of a partner.