Keisha Buchanans Shocking Kidnapping at 16

Sugababes singer has bravely revealed she was kidnapped at the age of 16, just as the pop group's career was taking off. 

Keisha, now 41, has recalled the traumatic 2000 incident, revealed how she was snatched near her school just before her GCSE exams at the same time as the Sugababes were releasing their first songs.

The ordeal meant her parents pulled her out of school and she never took her GCSE exams.

'I had like this incident right before my GCSEs where I was kidnapped,' she told the Live, Laugh, Luke... with Luke Hamnett podcast.

'So, because it was quite a traumatic experience, my parents were, like, "Yeah, so we're going to do a different type of education. So I kind of finished like my education, but I just couldn't do my GCSEs."'

She explained that she couldn't go into much detail about the incident as she planned to include it in an upcoming book, but she said 'I was basically taken after school by someone.'

'I think I just sort of blocked it and then had to just get back into, you know, promotion of our first single.'

Keisha was held captive for a few hours by her kidnapper and the traumatic incident led to her having therapy to try and deal with what occurred.

She said: 'It was a few hours. So for a kid, you know, it's a long time.'

When asked if she'd undergone therapy sessions to process what happened, she answered: 'Of course. I've actually been such an advocate of like therapy since I was 16, really.'

Keisha explained how the incident was one of the reasons she left school early, but she claimed she was also not allowed back to take her GCSE exams after taking time off to record Sugababes tracks with bandmates Mutya Buena and Siobhan Donaghy.

'We ended up leaving school. Siobhan went back to school to take her GCSEs and they accepted her back. When Mutya and I tried to get back, they were so rude' she said.

'They were like, "Oh no, no, no, you're not coming back. Like you guys thought you were going to be these pop stars. Let's see what's going to happen."' So they wouldn't accept us back.'

The group was formed in 1998 by All Saints manager Ron Tom. Keisha, then 13, was signed up to the band when her best friend Mutya invited her to watch her and Siobhan rehearse.

They went on to release their debut single Overload in 2000, scoring a number six position in the UK charts.

Keisha is planning a tell-all book that details what she went through in the Sugababes, including the kidnapping, the numerous line-up changes, being kicked out of her own group and the fight to reclaim the band's name.

When asked how the Sugababes are still going, she answered: 'Honestly, I feel like, and it sounds really cliche, but I do feel like it's by God's grace.'

'I genuinely feel that way because the things that have happened to us behind the scenes that no one even knows, like being kidnapped, I feel like there were so many things that have happened that really, some of us shouldn't have even survived and we're standing today.'