Lucy Spraggan reveals she was raped during 'X Factor UK' production

The singer says she was sexually assaulted by a hotel porter in 2012 after attending a fellow contestant’s birthday party.

Former X Factor UK contestant Lucy Spraggan has revealed that she was raped during the show’s production, which led to her dropping out of the singing competition.

Ahead of the release of her new memoir, Process: Finding My Way Through, which details the impact of the attack on her life, Spraggan, who competed on the ITV series in 2012, said she was sexually assaulted by a hotel porter.

Spraggan told The Guardian that on the evening she was assaulted she had attended fellow contestant Rylan Clark’s 25th birthday party at the London nightclub Mahiki with the X Factor UK crew. After she passed out, a production member escorted her back to her hotel, where a porter said he would take Spraggan to her room.

Spraggan said the porter flipped the security latch so the door wouldn’t lock. However, Clark returned later in the evening to check on her and closed her door. The porter then had to use a trackable keycard to gain access to her room, where he sexually assaulted her. This led to his arrest and, after pleading guilty, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 22: Lucy Spraggan attends The Sun’s “Who Cares Wins” Awards 2022 at The Roundhouse on November 22, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

Lucy Spraggan

| Credit: Gareth Cattermole/Getty

“I woke up the next day with this sense of sheer dread,” she told the outlet. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt that level of confusion since. I knew that I’d been raped, but I could not process that. So I put my clothes on and went into autopilot.”

Spraggan said the X Factor UK production team called authorities and she was taken to a specialist unit. Following the assault, Spraggan was too sick from the effects of PEP (a drug that prevents HIV) to perform and later left the competition. Her exit was announced during the fifth week of the competition.

While she received immediate medical and financial support from the show, the musician said she felt the X Factor UK was “unprepared” when it came to dealing with the aftermath of her assault and that she wasn’t given any support after the trial. She noted that, initially, she wanted to speak publicly about what had happened to her.

“At first I said, ‘Just tell them what happened,'” she explained. “But I realized straight away that it wasn’t going to be so simple. I remember various people saying, ‘You have your whole career ahead of you and you can’t retract this.'”

Spraggan said that, since then, she has decided to open up about her assault because “in order for me to rebuild myself and move on, I needed to tell the truth.”

The X Factor UK producer Fremantle did not immediately respond to EW’s request for comment. However, in a statement to The Guardian, a Fremantle spokesperson said, “While we believed throughout that we were doing our best to support Lucy in the aftermath of the ordeal, as Lucy thinks we could have done more, we must therefore recognize this. For everything Lucy has suffered, we are extremely sorry.” The statement continued, “Since then, we have done our very best to learn lessons from these events and improve our aftercare processes.”

Series creator Simon Cowell described what happened to Spraggan as “horrific and heartbreaking” in a statement to the outlet.

“When I was given the opportunity to speak to Lucy, I was able to personally tell her how sorry I was about everything she has been through,” he said. “Although we met under tragic circumstances, a genuine friendship and a mutual respect has developed between us. Lucy is one of the most authentic, talented, and brave people I have ever met. I have always supported her wish to tell her story as well as her efforts to bring about positive change.”