Rebecca Ferguson has lost faith she’ll ever get justice for how she’s been ‘blackmailed, bullied, and threatened’ since she found fame on The X Factor in 2009.
Ferguson was easily one of the most successful artists to come from The X Factor, coming second to Matt Cardle and beating one of the most successful British artists of all-time, One Direction.
The following year, she released her multi-platinum debut album, Heaven, to huge acclaim and was well on her way to becoming one of the most celebrated female musicians in Britain.
On paper, she was living the dream. But the reality of a hugely successful music career and massive fame from The X Factor was an unbearable nightmare that Ferguson, to this day, is unable to fully speak about after being threatened into signing an NDA, which puts her in a contract of sworn secrecy for life.
She was told she wouldn’t work again, despite sell-out tours and millions of albums sold. ‘They block our music on YouTube, block your albums on iTunes. If you’ve got a live agent who does all your bookings they they go, “right, don’t give her any bookings. If any Jons come in for her to sing, tell them she’s unavailable.” Eventually you’re completely isolated.’
Ferguson was broken down until eventually she was told she had only one option. ‘They they go, “Right. We can make this stop, we can make your life be ok again, you just need to sign this.”
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‘It was terrible,’ she tells Metro. ‘I was so young when this happened to me, now I’m older I’d class myself as being a baby at the time.’
Now, at 39, she’s a grown woman with a voice and is among the 91,000 people who have signed a petition calling to end the use of NDAs to silence victims of abuse in the workplace – seven years after former Prime Minister Theresa May first promised reform.
Ferguson joins Labour MP Louise Haigh, Zelda Perkins, co-founder of Can’t Buy My Silence, and campaigners from 38 Degrees who will be urging MPs ahead of the upcoming Employment Bill to put an end to the dangerous loophole in UK employment law which is impacting the lives of thousands of people.
‘It’s really quite widespread,’ says Ferguson. ‘I had a lot of high profile artists get in touch with me when I was campaigning. I obviously won’t name them but I found it so interesting how many reached out to say they’d gone through the same experience.’
But it’s an endemic that’s spread far beyond the music industry. Over 2,000 people from across almost every major sector in the UK completed a survey by worker-led platform Organise, with 29% of respondents claiming to have signed an NDA. 24% of respondents reported knowing someone who has had to sign an agreement requiring them to stay quiet about abuse, harassment, or discrimination in the workplace
‘It’s going on in offices all around the country, around the world,’ warns Ferguson.
Years after auditioning for The X Factor as a softly-spoken, gentle 23-year-old single mum, Ferguson is the obvious choice to join this petition. She’s been among the most vocal musicians to expose the manipulation of artists under NDAs for years, loudly spreading the message social media and wherever she can find a platform.
Initially, she wanted justice. Justice for the trauma she’s endured and against the people who gained from it. ‘I wanted every single truth to come out,’ she says. ‘I fought hard and went to them directly and said “you need to remedy this.”’
Ferguson did, somewhat surprisingly, get some form of an apology. Again, she won’t name names but she claims: ‘Some have actually shown a willingness to repair and remedy.’
Regardless, getting that apology made public feels impossible.
‘It’s one thing to apologise to someone privately but you’re absolving yourself from that guilt because the public perception is still that it might not have really happened, you’re still not fully acknowledging your role.
‘They’ll accept acknowledgment that what happened has happened to me and that it was unacceptable but they show no willingness to repair it. The company comes first.’
As she heads to parliament though, justice is no longer on her mind.
‘I’m a big believer in karma. ‘I’m at a place where I’d rather focus on my advocacy than dragging up what’s happened on The X Factor. I’m so over it, I’m not living in that place, I hope everyone moves on from it and turns it into something positive.’
Instead, she’s hoping this bill will prevent anyone else enduring the same horror. People shouldn’t just survive their careers, be burned out or thrown out of them entirely, traumatised and silenced.
But Ferguson has a clear warning for others as the process begins in the House of Lords tomorrow: ‘Question every single politician that opposes this bill. Why wouldn’t they just go, “this sounds great.”’
Directly to Sir Keir Starmer, she concludes: ‘It’s 2025, old systems of hiding corruption, deceit and these types of crimes isn’t sustainable. The public won’t accept it, future generations won’t accept it and so why not be the government that makes the change, agrees this bill and lets it come to pass.’
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